i 


1 


MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NBW  YORK  •   BOSTON  •   CHICAGO  •   DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MBLBOURNK 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd, 

TORONTO 


MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY 


FBOM 


THE  HOME  CORRESPONDENCE 

OF  AMY  FAY 

II 


EDITED  BY 

MRS.   FAY   PEIRCE,:  i' 

AvrmoiL  of  "  Co-o«rativ«  Houas^nFora  ** 


**  The  light  that  neyw  wm  on  ses  or  land." 

WOBDSWOBTH 

"  Pour  admirer  assez  il  faut  admirw  trop,  «t  on  p«a  d'Ulniioil 
uecetsaire  aa  bouheur." 

OteftBVLISZ 


With  a  Prefatory  Notk 
By  O.  G.  SONNECK 


THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY 
1922 

All  rights  reaervtd 


K7  l~  fij 


COPTBIOHT, 

^▲ISrSEN,  MoCLUEG  &  COMPAinr 
A    *'*•  1880. 


Copyright,  1896, 

bt  the  macmillan  company. 


Printed  August,  1896;  reprinted  June,  ^897; 
September,  1900;  February,  1903  ;  March,  1Q05  ; 
June,  1908;  July,  19C39  ;  August,  1913  ;  April,  1922, 


NoriDoali  Vrrss  t 

Berwick  Ic  Smitti,  Norwood,  MftM.,  U.8^ 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 

Comparatively  few  books  on  music  have  enjoyed  the 
distinction  of  reissue.  Twenty-one  editions  is  an  amaz- 
ing record  for  a  book  of  so  narrow  a  subject  as  "Music 
Study  in  Germany."  The  case  of  Miss  Amy  Fay's  vol- 
ume becomes  all  the  more  unusual,  if  one  considers  that 
her  letters  were  written  only  for  home,  not  for  a  public 
audience  and  further  that  within  twenty  years  from  the 
year  of  first  publication,  her  observations  had  become 
more  or  less  obsolete. 

The  Germany  of  the  years  1869-1875  was  quite  differ- 
ent from  the  Germany  of  1900  and  certainly  of  1912, 
even  down  to  German  table-manners.  The  earlier 
"Spiessbiirgertum"  of  which  Miss  Fay  gives  such  en- 
tertaining glimpses  even  in  high  quarters  with  their  pomp 
and  circumstance,  was  rapidly  being  replaced,  at  least 
outwardly,  by  the  more  cosmopolitan  culture  of  the  fin 
de  sihcle,  not  to  mention  the  ambition  for  political,  in- 
dustrial and  commercial  "Weltmacht"  in  a  nation 
thitherto  known,  perhaps  too  romantically,  as  a  nation 
of  "Denker  und  Dichter." 

Most  of  the  heroes  of  the  book  are  long  since  dead, 
Miss  Fay  included,  who  died  in  1921.  While  even 
as  late  as  1890,  Miss  Fay's  volume  could  have  been 
used  as  a  guide  of  orientation  by  the  would-be  student  of 
music  in  Germany,  certainly  it  could  no  longer  serve 


4S9232 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


such  a  purpose  during  the  years  just  prior  to  the  war, 
when  the  lone  American  student  of  her  book  who  despised 
Germany  and  everything  German  was  definitely  in  the 
ascendency.  In  other  words,  her  personal  observations 
had  ceased  to  be  applicable  except  in  certain  details  of 
ambient  and  had  passed  into  the  realm  of  autobiography 
valuable  for  historical  reading.  As  a  piece  of  historical 
literature  proper,  I  doubt  that  the  book  would  have  sur- 
vived the  war,  because  it  is  lamentably  true  that  the'average 
American  music-student  or  even  cultured  lover  of  music 
is  not  particularly  interested  in  musical  history  as  such. 

To  this  must  be  added  the  indisputable  fact  that 
"music  study  in  Germany"  or  in  France,  for  that  matter, 
had  become  a  mere  matter  of  personal  taste  and  predi- 
lection, and  was  not  a  necessity  as  in  the  days  of  Miss 
Fay's  amusing  experiments  with  this  or  that  German 
teacher  of  renown.  An  endless  stream  of  excellent  Eu- 
ropean artists  and  teachers  had  poured  into  America 
since  then,  augmented  by  the  equally  broad  stream  of 
native  Americans  who  had  learned  their  mStier  abroad. 
Music  study  in  America  thus  became  an  easy  matter  and 
many  an  aspiring  virtuoso  would  have  done  more  wisely 
by  staying  and  studying  at  home,  instead  of  venturing 
to  a  European  country  with  its  different  language,  its 
different  temperament,  its  different  mode  of  living,  cus- 
toms and  so  forth.  Germany,  in  particular,  is  still  a 
"marvellous  home  of  music,"  to  quote  an  editorial  re- 
mark of  Miss  Fay's  sister,  but  it  is  no  longer  the  "only 
real  home  of  music,"  thanks  precisely  to  such  artists  as 
Miss  Amy  Fay  herself. 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


To  point  out  the  radical  change  in  conditions  in  that 
respect  is  one  thing,  quite  another  to  deny,  as  some  rather 
zealotic  patriots  do,  that  Europe,  Germany  included,  can 
still  give  the  American  music-student  something  which 
he  does  not  have  at  home  quite  in  the  same  manner.  De- 
bate on  that  subject  is  futile.  Let  the  American  music- 
student  at  some  time  in  his  career,  but  only  when  he  is 
ripe  for  further  study  in  a  foreign  country,  sojourn  a  few 
years  in  Paris,  Berlin,  Leipzig,  Munich,  Vienna,  Rome, 
London,  and  he  will  profitably  encounter,  whether  it  be 
to  his  taste  or  not,  that  indefinable  something  which  the 
old  world  in  matters  of  life,  art,  and  art-life  possessed  as 
peculiarly  its  own  in  1870,  still  possesses  to-day,  and  will 
possess  for  many,  many  years  to  come. 

What,  then,  gives  to  Miss  Fay's  book  its  vitality? 
What  is  it  that  justifies  the  publisher  in  keeping  the  book 
accessible  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  wish  to  study  music 
in  Germany  instead  of  elsewhere  or  of  those  even  who 
study  music  in  America  ? 

Of  course,  there  is  first  of  all  the  charm  of  Miss  Fay's 
own  personality,  the  charm  of  her  observations  in- 
timately, entertainingly,  and  shrewdly  expressed.  That 
makes  for  good  reading.  Incidentally,  it  teaches  a  stu- 
dent-reader to  be  observant,  which  unfortunately  many 
musicians  are  not,  even  in  matters  of  technique  on  their 
chosen  instrument.  Secondly,  the  seriousness  of  pur- 
pose of  the  authoress,  the  determination  to  improve  her 
understanding  of  art  and  technique  to  the  very  limit  of 
her  natural  ability,  will  act  as  a  stimulating  tonic  for  him 
or  her  who  despairs  of  ever  conquering  the  often  so  for- 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


bidding  difficulties  of  music.  The  book  will  teach  pa- 
tience to  Americans,  patience  and  endurance  in  endeavor, 
qualities  which  are  none  too  frequent  in  us.  Young 
America  forgets  too  often  that  the  Gradus  ad  Parnassum 
is  not  only  steep ;  it  is  long  and  rough. 

There  is  furthermore  in  these  letters  that  respect  for 
solid  accomplishment  of  others,  that  reverential  attitude 
toward  the  great  in  art  and  toward  art  itself,  without 
which  no  musician,  however  talented,  will  ever  reach  the 
commanding  heights  of  art.  There  permeates  these 
letters  the  enthusiasm  of  youth,  that  perhaps  sometimes 
overshoots  its  mark  but  for  which  most  of  us  would  gladly 
exchange  the  more  critical  attitude  of  maturer  years. 
For  we  learn  to  appreciate  sooner  or  later  that  enthusiasm 
is  the  propelling  force  and  the  refreshing  source  of  in- 
spiration. Finally,  born  of  all  these  elements  there  ap- 
pear on  the  pages  of  Miss  Fay's  letters  such  fascinating 
pen-portraits  as  that  of  her  revered  master,  Franz  Liszt, 
the  incomparable.  Turning  the  pages  of  the  volume  to 
refresh  my  memory  and  impression  of  it,  I  confess  that 
I  skipped  quite  a  few  because  their  interest  seemed  so 
remote  and  personal,  but  I  found  myself  absorbing  every 
word  Miss  Fay  had  to  say  in  her  chapters  about  Liszt  and 
his  Weimar  circle.  An  enjoyable  experience  which  one 
may  safely  recommend  to  those  who  desire  first-hand 
impressions  of  the  golden  days  of  pianism  in  Germany, 
of  the  romantic,  indeed  almost  legendary  figure  of  Franz 
Liszt,  and  consequently  a  touch  of  the  stuff  out  of  which 
art-novels  are  made,  into  the  bargain. 

O.   G.    SONNECK 


PREFACE. 


In  preparing  for  the  public  letters  which  were  written 
only  for  home,  I  have  hoped  that  some  readers  would  find  in 
them  the  charm  of  style  which  the  writer's  friends  fancy 
them  to  possess ;  that  others  would  think  the  description  of 
her  masters  amid  their  pupils,  and  especially  Liszt,  worth 
preserving ;  while  piano  students  would  be  grateful  for  the 
information  that  an  analysis  of  the  piano  technique  has  been 
made,  such  as  very  greatly  to  diminish  the  difficulties  of  the 
instrument. 

How  much  of  Herr  Deppe's  piano  "  method  "  is  original 
with  himself,  pianists  must  decide.  That  he  has  at  least 
made  an  invaluable  resume  of  all  or  most  of  their  secrets,  my 
sister  believes  no  student  of  the  instrument  who  fairly  and 
conscientiously  examines  into  the  matter  will  deny. 

M.   FAY  PEIKCE. 
Chicago,  Dec,  1880. 


PREFACE 

TO  THE  ENGLISH  EDITION. 

Miss  Fay's  little  book  has  been  so  popular  in  her  own 
country  as  to  have  gone  through  half  a  dozen  editions,  and 
even  in  German,  into  which  it  was  translated  soon  after  its 
first  appearance,  it  has  had  much  success.  It  is  strange  that 
it  has  not  been  already  published  in  England,  where  music 
excites  so  much  attention,  and  where  works  on  musical  sub- 
jects are  beginning  to  form  a  distinct  branch  of  literature. 
This  is  the  more  remarkable  because  it  is  thoroughly  read- 
able and  amusing,  which  books  on  music  too  rarely  are. 
The  freshness  and  truth  of  the  letters  is  not  to  be  denied. 
We  may  laugh  at  the  writer's  enthusiasm,  at  the  readiness 
with  which  she  changes  her  methods  and  gives  up  all  that 
she  has  already  learnt  at  the  call  of  each  fresh  teacher,  at 
the  certainty  with  which  every  new  artist  is  announced  as 
quite  the  best  she  ever  heard,  and  at  the  glowing  and  con- 
fident predictions  —  not,  alas,  apparently  always  realised. 
But  no  one  can  laugh  "at  her  indomitable  determination, 
and  the  artistic  earnestness  with  which  she  makes  the  most 
of  each  of  her  opportunities,  or  the  brightness  and  ease 
with  which  aU  is  described  (in  choice  American),  and  each 
successive  person  placed  before  us  in  his  habit  as  he  lives. 
Such  a  gift  is  indeed  a  rare  and  precious  one.  Will  Miss 
Fay  never  oblige  us  with  an  equally  charming  and  faithful 

(3) 


PREFACE. 


account  of  music  and  life  in  the  States?  Hitherto  musical 
America  has  been  almost  an  unknown  land  to  us,  described 
by  the  few  who  have  attempted  it  in  the  most  opposite 
terms.  Their  singers  we  already  know  well,  and  in  this 
respect  America  is  perhaps  destined  to  be  the  Italy  of  the 
future,  if  only  the  artists  wiU  consent  to  learn  slowly  enough. 
But  on  the  subject  of  American  players  and  American 
orchestras,  and  the  taste  of  the  American  amateurs,  a  great 
deal  of  curiosity  is  felt,  and  we  commend  the  subject  to  the 
serious  attention  of  one  so  thoroughly  able  to  do  it  justice. 

GEORGE   GROVE. 
December,  1885. 


PREFACE 

TO  THE   GERMAN  EDITION. 


®le  tjorliegenbcn  ©riefc  eincr  Slmerifanerin  in  tie  ^eimat^,  bte 
im  Original  bcreits  in  gftjciter  ^luflagc  erfc^icncn  jinb,  tocrbcn,  fo 
^offcn  h)ir,  aud^  bcm  beutjc^en  ?cfcr  nic^t  minbcreS  SScrgniigen, 
nic^t  geringcre  ^Inregung  al8  bent  amcrifanijc^cn  gcrta^rcn,  ha  fit 
In  nnmittelbarer  ^^rifc^e  niebergefc^ricbcn,  ein  tebenbigeS  Silb  oon 
ben  S3c3ict)ungcn  ber  35crfaf[erin  gn  ben  ^eroorragcnbflcn  ntujtfas 
Uf(^cn  ^crjonlic^feitcn,  tt)ic  SiS^t,  ».  53iitott),  Saujig,  3oac^im 
u.  f.  nj.  bietcn. 

SBir  geben  ba8  S3ud^  in  ttjortgctrcuer  Ueberfc^ung  unb  ^aben  t9 
nur  um  biejcnigen  SSriefe  gefurjt,  bic  in  2)cutf^Ianb  2lll3ube=« 
fanntc?  bc^anbcln,  §ingcgen  glaubten  toir  bie  ©teHen  bcm  ?efer 
nt(^t  tjorent^attcn  gu  biirfcn,  rt)ctd^c  gtoar  nic^t  ntufifalijc^en  3n» 
^altS  ftnb,  un6  aber  jcigen,  mic  mand^c  unfcrer  beutf^en  ^u»  obec 
SWtPonbc  tjon  3lnterifanern  bcurt^cilt  njcrbcn. 

Hobert  ©ppenljeim,  Publisher, 
©eriin,  1882. 


CONTENTS. 


n  TAUSIG'S  CONSERVATORY. 

CHAPTER  I. 

PAOm 

A  GxBMAK  Intsriob  IX  Berlik.     a  Gbbmak    Partt.     Joachix. 
Taubiq^s  Conbkrvatort IS 

CHAPTER  11. 

Clara  Scbuicaitn  and  Joachim.    Thb  American  Ministkb's.    Thb 
Museum.    Tbe  Conservatory.     Opera.    TAUSia.    Cbribtiias.    25 

CHAPTER  III. 

TAusie  AND  Rubinstein.    .Tausig's  Pufilb.    Thb  Bancboftb.    A 
Gbbman  Radical , 87 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Ofbba  and  Obatobio  in  Beblin.    a  Typical  Amebican.    Pbussiak 

RUDBNBBS.  CONSERYATORY  ChANOEB.  EaSTEB U 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  Thibr-Qarten.      A  Military  Review.       Chablottenbubo. 
Tausio.    Beblik  in  Summer.    Potsdam  and  Babelbbbbo 64 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  War.    Gbrman  Meals.    Women  and  Men.    Tausio's  Tbaoh- 
iNO.  Tausiq  Abandons  his  Conservatory.  Dbebdxn.  Euixak.    71 

(7) 


CONTENTS. 


WITH  KULLAK 

CHAPTER  VII. 


PAOS. 

MovmG.  Gkrmak  Houses  and  Dinkbrs.  Thb  War.  Captubk  of 
Napolbon.  Kullak's  and  Tausig's  Teaching.  Joachim.  Wao- 
NBB.    Tausig'8  Plating.    Gbrma w  Etiquette 95 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

CoNOXBTs.  Joachim  again.  The  Sibgb  of  Pabib.  Peacb  Dbclabks. 
Wagneb.  a  Woman's  Symphony.  Ovation  to  Waqnkr  in 
Bbblin Ill 

CHAPTER  IX. 

I>itpioultibs  of  thb  Piano.  Triumphal  Entby  of  the  Tboops. 
Paris ItS 

CHAPTER  X. 

A  Rhinb  Journey.  Frankfort.  Mainz.  Sail  down  the  Rhine. 
Cologne.  Bonn.  The  Seven  Mountains.  Worms.  Spibb. 
Heidblbebg.    Tausiq's  Death 181 

CHAPTER  XL 

EiSEKACH.    GoTHA.    Ebpurt.    Andernach.    Weimab.    Tausig —  14B 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Dinner-Party  and  Reception  at  Mb.  Bancroft's.  Auctiok  at 
Taubig's  House.   A  German  Chbistmas.    The  Joachims  ....      157 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Visit  to  Dbesden.  The  Wiecks.  Von  Bulow.  A  Child  Peodigt. 
Gbantzow,  the  Dancer 168 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

A  Rising  Organist.   Kullak.   Von  Buloit's  Playing.   A  Pbincelt 

FUNEBAL    WILHELMJ'S  CONCEBT.     A  COUBT  BEAUTT 174 


CONTENTS.  d 


CHAPTER   XV. 

Thb  Boston  Fibb.  Aggravations  of  Music  Study.  Kullak. 
Skbbwood.  Hoch  Schulb.  a  Brilliant  American.  German 
Dancino  182 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

A  German  Professor.  Sherwood.  Thb  Baroness  von  S.  Yon 
BuLow.   A  German  Party.    Joachim,   The  Baroness  at  Home.  193 

WITH  LISZT. 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Abbtves  in  Wiemar.  Liszt  at  the  Thbatbe.— At  a  Party.  At 
HIS  OWN  House 205 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Liszt's  Dbawinq-boom.  An  Artist's  Walking  Pabty.  Liszt's 
Teaching 218 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Liszt's  Bxpbbsbion  in  Playing.  Liszt  on  Conbebyatobies.  Ob- 
DBAL  or  Liszt's  Lessons.    Liszt's.Kindnesb 227 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Libzt'b  Compositions.  His  Playing  and  Teaching  of  Beethoven. 
HiB  "Effects"  in  Piano-playing.  Excubsion  to  Jena.  A 
New  Music  Masteb 385 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

Libzt's  Playing.    Tausig.    Excursion  to  Sondershaubbh »48 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

Farewell  to  Liszt  I  German  Conservatories  and  their  Methods. 
Berlin  again.    Liszt  and  Joachim 263 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

KUZJ.AK  AS  A  Teacher.  The  Four  Great  Virtuobi,  Claba  Schu- 
mann, Rubinstein,  Von  Bulow  and  Tausig 27t 


10  CONTENTS. 


WITH  DEPPE, 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 


PAOE. 

Gnrss  TIP  KiiLLAK  FOB  Dkppe.  Dbppe's  Method  in  Touch  and  in 
-SoAi-B-PLAYiNQ.    Fraulein  Stbinighr.     Pkdal  Studt S83 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

Chobd-playing.  Dbppe  no  mere  "Pedagogue."  Sherwood. 
Mozart's  Concertos.    Practicing  Slowly.    The  Opera  Ball.  299 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

A  Set  op  Beethoven  Variations.  Fannie  Warburg.  Deppe''b 
Inventions.    His  Room.    His  Afternoon  Coffee.     Pyrmoht,  811 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

The  Bbubiels  Conservatoire.  Steiniger.  Excursion  to  Elbin- 
BERG.    Giving  a  Concert.    Fraulein  Timm 8S3 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

Music  in  Hahburg.  Studying  Chamber  Music.  Absence  of  Re. 
LioioN  IN  Germany.  South  Americans.  Dbppe  Once  Mor» 
A  Concert  Debut.    Postscript., 881 


IN  TAUSIG'S  CONSERYATORT. 


MUSIC-STtJDT  IN  GERMANY. 


CHAPTER  I. 


A  German  Interior  in  Berlin.    A  CJerman  Party.    Joachim. 
Tausig's  Conservatory. 

Berlin,  November  3,  1869. 
Behold  me  at  last  at  No.  26  Bemburger  Strasse! 
where  I  arrived  exactly  two  weeks  from  the  day  I  left 
New  York.  Frau  W.  and  her  daughter,  Fraulem  A. 
W.,  greeted  me  with  the  greatest  warmth  and  cordiality, 
and  made  me  feel  at  home  immediately.  The  German 
idea  of  a  "large"  room  I  find  is  rather  peculiar,  for 
this  one  is  not  more  than  ten  or  eleven  feet  square, 
and  has  one  comer  of  it  snipped  off,  so  that  the  room 
is  an  irregular  shape.  When  I  first  entered  it  I  thought 
I  could  not  stay  in  it,  it  seemed  so  small,  but  when 
I  came  to  examine  it,  so  ingeniously  is  every  inch  of 
space  made  the  most  of,  that  I  have  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  it  will  be  very  comfortable.  It  is  not,  however^ 
the  apartment  where  "  the  last  new  novel  wiU  he  upon 
the  table,  and  where  my  daintily  shppered  feet  wiU  rest 
upon  the  velvet  cushion."  No!  rather  is  it  the  stem 
abode  of  the  Muses. 

(13). 


14  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY, 

To  begin  then :  the  room  is  spotlessly  clean  and  neat. 
The  walls  are  papered  with  a  nice  new  paper,  grey  ground 
with  blue  figures — a  cheap  paper,  but  soft  and  pretty.  In 
one  corner  stands  my  little  bureau  with  three  deep  draw- 
ers. Over  it  is  a  large  looking-glass  nicely  framed.  In  the 
other  corner  on  the  same  side  is  a  big  sofa  which  at 
night  becomes  a  little  bed.  Next  to  the  foot  of  the 
sofa,  against  the  wall,  stands  a  tiny  square  table,  with  a 
marble  top,  and  a  shelf  underneath,  on  which  are  a 
basin  and  a  minute  soap-dish  and  tumbler.  In  the 
opposite  corner  towers  a  huge  grey  porcelain  stove,  which 
comes  up  to  within  a  few  feet  of  the  ceiling.  Next  is 
one  stiff  cane-bottomed  chair  on  four  stiff  legs.  Then 
comes  the  lop-sided  corner  of  the  room,  where  an  upright 
piano  is  to  stand.  Next  there  is  a  little  space  where 
hangs  the  three-shelved  book-case,  which  will  contain 
my  vast  Hbrary.  Then  comes  a  broad  French  window 
with  a  deep  window-seat.  By  this  window  is  my  sea- 
chair — ^by  far  the  most  luxurious  one  in  the  house ! 
Then  comes  my  bureau  again,  and  so  on  Da  Capo.  In 
the  middle  is  a  pretty  round  table,  with  an  inlaid  centre- 
piece, and  on  it  is  a  waiter  with  a  large  glass  bottle  full 
of  water,  and  a  glass;  and  this,  with  one  more  stiff 
chair,  completes  the  furniture  of  the  room.  My  cur- 
tains are  white,  with  a  blue  border,  and  two  transparen- 
cies hang  in  the  window.  My  towel-rack  is  fastened  to 
the  wall,  and  has  an  embroidered  centre-piece.  On  my 
bureau  is  a  beautiful  inkstand,  the  cover  being  a  carved 
eagle  with  spread  wings,  perched  over  a  nest  with  three 
eggs  in  it.  It  is  quite  large,  and  looks  extremely  pretty 
under  the  looking-glass. 


A  BERLIN  HOME.  15 

After  I  had  taken  off  my  things,  Frau  W.  and  her 
daughter  ushered  me  into  their  parlour,  which  had  the 
same  look  of  neatness  and  simpHcity  and  of  extreme 
economy.  There  are  no  caipets  on  any  of  the  floors,  but 
they  have  large,  though  cheap,  rugs.  You  never  saw 
such  a  primitive  httle  household  as  it  is — that  of  this 
German  lawyer's  widow.  We  think  our  house  at  home 
small,  but  I  feel  as  if  we  Hved  in  palatial  magnificence 
after  seeing  how  they  hve  here,  *.  e.,  about  as  our  dress- 
makeis  used  to  do  in  the  country,  and  yet  it  is  sufficiently 
nice  and  comfortable.  There  are  two  very  pretty  little 
rooms  opposite  mine,  which  are  yet  to  be  let  together. 
If  some  friend  of  mine  could  only  take  them  I  should 
be  perfectly  happy. 

At  night  my  bed  is  made  upon  the  sofa.  (They  all 
sleep  on  these  sofas.)  The  cover  consists  of  a  feather 
bed  and  a  blanket.  That  sounds  rather  formidable,  but 
the  feather  bed  is  a  hght,  warm  covering,  and  looks 
about  two  inches  thick.  It  is  much  more  comfortable 
than  our  bed  coverings  in  America.  I  tuck  myself  into 
my  nest  at  night,  and  in  the  morning  after  breakfast, 
when  I  return  to  my  room — agramento-presto-change  ! 
— my  bed  is  converted  into  a  sofa,  my  basin  is  laid  on 
the  shelf,  the  soap-dish  and  my  combs  and  brushes 
are  scuttled  away  into  the  drawer;  the  windows  are 
open,  a  fresh  fire  crackles  in  my  stove,  and  my  charm- 
ing little  bed-room  is  straightway  converted  into  an 
equally  charming  sitting-room.  How  does  the  picture 
please  you  ? 

This  morning  Frau  and  FrSulein  W.  went  with  me 
to  engage  a  piano,  and  they  took  me  also  to  the  con- 


16  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

servatory.  Tausig  is  off  for  six  weeks,  giving  concerts. 
As  I  went  up  the  stairs  I  heard  most  beautiful  playing. 
Ehlert,  Tausig's  partner,  who  has  charge  of  the  conser- 
vatory, and  teaches  his  pupils  in  his  absence,  examined 
me.  After  that  long  voyage  I  did  not  dare  attempt  any- 
thing difficult,  so  I  just  played  one  of  Bach's  Gavottes. 
He  said  some  encouraging  words,  and  for  the  present  has 
taken  me  into  his  class.  I  am  to  begin  to-morrow  from 
one  o'clock  to  two.  It  is  now  ten  P.  M.,  and  tell  C,  we 
have  had  five  meals  to-day,  so  Madame  P.'s  statement 
is  about  correct.  The  cooking  is  on  the  same  scale  as 
the  rest  of  the  establishment — a  little  at  a  time,  but  so 
far  very  good.  We  know  nothing  at  all  about  rolls  in 
America.  Anything  so  delicious  as  the  rolls  here  I 
never  ate  in  the  way  of  bread.  In  the  morning  we  had 
a  cup  of  coffee  and  rolls.  At  eleven  we  lunched  on  a 
cup  of  bouillon  and  a  roll.  At  two  o'clock  we  had  din- 
ner, which  consisted  of  soup  and  then  chickens,  potar 
toes,  carrots  and  bread,  with  beer.  At  five  we  had  tea, 
cake  and  toast,  and  at  nine  we  had  a  supper  of  cold 
meat,  boiled  eggs,  tea  and  bread  and  butter.  FrSulein 
W.  speaks  Enghsh  quite  nicely,  and  is  my  medium 
of  communication  with  her  mother.  I  begin  German 
lessons  with  her  to-morrow.  They  both  send  you  their 
compliments,  and  so  you  must  return  yours.  They  seem 
as  kind  as  possible,  and  I  think  I  am  very  fortunate  in 
my  boarding  place. 

Be  sure  to  direct  your  letters  "  Care  Frau  Geheim- 
rSthin  W."  (Mrs.  Councillor  W.),  as  the  German 
ladies  are  very  particular  about  their  titles  ! 


SPEAKING  GERMAN.  17 


Berlin,  November  21, 1869. 

Since  I  wrote  to  you  not  much  of  interest  has  oc- 
curred. I  am  dehghted  with  Berlin,  and  am  enjoying 
myself  very  much,  though  I  am  working  hard.  I  am  so 
thankful  that  all  my  sewing  was  done  before  I  came,  for 
I  have  not  a  minute  to  spare  for  it,  and  here  it  seems  to 
me  all  the  dresses  fit  so  dreadfully.  It  would  make  me 
miserable  to  wear  such  lookmg  clothes,  and  as  I 
can't  speak  the  language,  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
giving  directions  on  the  technicalities  of  dressmaking 
would  be  terrific.  Tell  C.  he  is  very  wise  to  con- 
tinue his  German  conversation  lessons  with  Madame  P. 
Even  the  few  that  I  took  prove  of  immense  assist- 
ance to  me,  as  I  can  understand  almost  everything 
that  is  said  to  me,  though  I  cannot  answer  back.  He 
ought  to  make  one  of  his  lessons  about  shopping  and 
droschkie  drivmg,  for  it  is  very  essential  to  know  how  to 
ask  for  things,  and  to  be  able  to  give  directions  in  driv- 
ing. I  had  a  very  funny  experience  with  a  droschkie 
the  other  day,  but  it  would  take  too  long  to  write  it. 
Frau  W.  cannot  understand  English,  and  she  gets  dread- 
fully impatient  when  FrSulein  A.  and  I  speak  it,  and 
always  says  "  Deutsch "  in  a  sepulchral  tone,  so  that  I 
have  to  begin  and  say  it  all  over  again  in  German  with 
A.'s  help. 

When  I  got  f  akly  settled  I  presented  myseK  and  my 
letters  at  the  Bancrofts,  the  B's.  and  the  A's.,  and  was  very 
kindly  and  cordially  received  by  them  all.  Mrs.  Bancroft 
and  Mrs.  B.  have  since  called  in  return,  and  I  have  already 
been  to  a  charming  reception  at  the  house  of  the  latter,  and 


18  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

— — — ___^ — — — — - — J.  * 

to  the  grand  American  Thanksgiving  dinner  at  the  Hotel 
de  Rome,  at  which  Mr.  Bancroft  presided,  and  made  very 
happy  speeches  both  ui  EngUsh  and  German.  I  en- 
joyed both  occasions  extremely,  and  made  some  pleasant 
acquaintances.  I  have  also  been  to  one  German  tea- 
party  with  Frau  W.  and  A.,  and  there  I  had  "  the  jolhest 
kind  of  a  time."  There  were  only  twelve  invited,  but  you 
would  have  supposed  from  the  clatter  that  there  were  at 
least  a  hundred.  At  the  American  dinner  there  was  noth- 
ing like  the  noise  of  conversation  that  this  little  handful 
kept  up.  Before  supper  it  was  rather  stupid,  for  the  men  all 
retired  to  a  room  by  themselves,  where  they  sat  with  closed 
doors  and  played  whist  and  smoked.  It  is  not  considered 
proper  for  ladies  to  play  cards  except  at  home,  and  I,  of 
course,  did  not  say  much,  for  the  excellent  reason  that  I 
couldnH  !  At  ten  o'clock  supper  was  announced,  and 
the  gentlemen  came  and  took  us  in.  Herr  J.  was 
my  pai-tner.  He  is  a  delightful  man,  though  an  elderly 
one,  and  knows  no  end  of  things,  as  he  has  spent  his 
whole  life  in  study  and  in  travelling.  He  looks  to  me 
like  a  man  of  very  sensitive  organization,  and  of  very 
delicate  feelings.  He  is  a  tremendous  republican,  and  a 
great  radical  in  every  respect,  and  has  an  unbounded 
admiration  for  America. 

As  soon  as  every  one  was  seated  at  the  table  with  due 
form  and  ceremony,  all  began  to  talk  as  hard  as  they 
could,  and  you  have  no  idea  what  a  noise  they  made,  and 
how  it  increased  toward  the  end  with  the  potent  libations 
they  had.  The  bill  of  fare  was  rather  curious.  We 
began  with  shoes  of  hot  tongue,  with  a  sauce  of  chest- 
nuts, and  it  was  extremely  nice,  too.    Then  we  had  ven- 


A  GERMAN  SUPPER.  19 

ison  and  boiled  potatoes !  Then  we  had  a  dessert  con- 
sisting of  fruit,  and  some  delicious  cake.  There  were 
several  kinds  of  wine,  and  everybody  drank  the  greatest 
quantity.  The  host  and  hostess  kept  jumping  up  and 
going  round  to  everybody,  saying:  "But  you  drink 
nothing,"  and  then  they  would  insist  upon  filling  up 
your  glass.  I  don't  dare  to  think  how  many  times  they 
filled  mine,  but  it  seemed  to  be  etiquette  to  drink,  and 
so  I  did  as  the  rest.  The  repast  ended  with  coffee,  and 
then  the  gentlemen  lit  their  cigars,  and  were  in  such  an 
extremely  cheerful  frame  of  mind  that  they  all  began 
to  sing,  and  I  even  saw  two  old  fellows  kiss  each  other ! 
The  venison  was  delicious,  and  nicer  than  any  I  ever 
ate.  Herr  J.  was  the  only  man  in  the  room  who 
could  speak  any  English,  and  since  then  he  takes  a  good 
deal  of  interest  in  me,  and  lends  me  books.  Every  Sun- 
day Frau  W.  takes  me  to  her  sister's  house  to  tea. 
I  like  to  go  because  I  hear  so  much  German  spoken 
there,  and  they  all  take  a  profound  interest  in  my  affairs. 
They  know  to  a  minute  when  I  get  a  letter,  and  when  I 
write  one,  and  eveiy  incident  of  my  daily  life.  It  amuses 
them  very  much  to  see  a  real  live  wild  Indian  from 
America.  I  am  soon  going  to  another  German  party, 
and  I  look  forward  to  it  with  much  pleasure ;  not  that 
the  parties  here  give  me  the  same  feeling  as  at  home, 
but  they  are  amusing  because  they  are  so  entirely  dif- 
ferent. 

There  is  so  much  to  be  seen  and  heard  in  Berlin  that 
if  one  has  but  the  money  there  is  no  end  to  one's  re- 
sources. There  are  the  opera  and  the  Schauspielhaus  every 
night,  and  beautiful  concerts  every  evening,  too.    They 


MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 


say  that  the  opera  here  is  magnificent,  and  the  scenery 
superb,  and  they  have  a  wonderful  ballet-troupe.  So  far, 
however,  I  have  only  been  to  one  concert,  and  that  was 
a  sacred  concert.  But  Joachim  played — and  Oh-h,  what 
a  tone  he  draws  out  of  the  violin !  I  could  think  of 
nothing  but  Mrs.  Moulton's  voice,  as  he  sighed  out  those 
exquisitely  pathetic  notes.  He  played  something  by 
Schumann  which  ended  with  a  single  note,  and  as  he 
drew  his  bow  across  he  produced  so  many  shades  that  it 
was  perfectly  marvellous.  I  am  going  to  hear  him 
again  on  Sunday  night,  when  he  plays  at  Clara  Schu- 
mann's concert.  It  will  be  a  great  concert,  for  she 
plays  much.  She  will  be  assisted  by  Joachim,  Miiller, 
De  Ahna,  and  by  Joachim's  wife,  who  has  a  beautiful 
voice  and  sings  charmingly  in  the  serious  German 
style.  Joachim  himself  is  not  only  the  greatest  vio- 
linist in  the  world,  but  one  of  the  greatest  that  ever- 
lived.  De  Ahna  is  one  of  the  first  violinists  in  Ger- 
many, and  Muller  is  one  of  the  first  'cellists.  In  fact, 
this  quartette  cannot  be  matched  in  Europe — so  you 
see  what  1  am  expecting ! 

Tausig  has  not  yet  returned  from  his  concert 
tour,  and  will  not  arrive  before  the  21st  of  De- 
cember. I  find  Ehlert  a  splendid  teacher,  but  very 
severe,  and  I  am  mortally  afraid  of  him.  Not  that  he 
is  cross,  but  he  exacts  so  much,  and  such  a  hopeless 
feeling  of  despair  takes  possession  of  me.  His  first 
lesson  on  touch  taught  me  more  than  all  my  other 
lessons  put  together — though,  to  be  sure,  that  is  not 
saying  much,  as  they  were  "  few  and  far  between." 
At  present  I  am  weltering  in  a  sea  of  troubles.    The 


A  "MUSICAL  READINQ.»»  21 

girls  in  my  class  are  three  in  number,  and  they  all 
play  so  extraordinarily  well  that  sometimes  I  think 
I  can  never  catch  up  with  them.  I  am  the  worst  of 
all  the  scholars  in  Tausig's  classes  that  I  have  heard, 
except  one,  and  that  is  a  young  man.  I  know  that 
Ehlert  thinks  I  have  talent,  but,  after  all,  talent  must 
go  to  the  wall  before  such  practice  as  these  people  have 
had,  for  most  of  them  have  studied  a  long  time,  and 
have  been  at  the  piano  four  and  five  hours  a  day. 

It  is  very  interesting  in  the  conservatory,  for  there 
are  pupils  there  from  all  countries  except  France. 
Some  of  them  seem  to  me  splendid  musicians.  On 
Sunday  morning  (I  am  sorry  to  say)  once  in  a  month 
or  six  weeks,  they  have  what  they  call  a  "Musical 
Reading."  It  is  held  in  a  piano-forte  ware-room,  and 
there  all  the  scholars  in  the  higher  classes  play,  so  I 
had  to  go.  Many  of  the  girls  played  magnificently, 
and  I  was  amazed  at  the  technique  that  they  had,  and 
at  the  artistic  manner  in  which  even  very  young  girls 
rendered  the  most  difficult  music,  and  all  without 
notes.  It  gave  me  a  severe  nervous  headache  just  to 
hear  them.  But  it  was  delightful  to  see  them  go  at 
it.  None  of  them  had  the  least  fear,  and  they  laughed 
and  chattered  between  the  pieces,  and  when  their  turn 
came  they  marched  up  to  the  piano,  sat  down  as  bold 
as  lions,  and  banged  away  so  splendidly ! 

You  have  no  idea  how  hard  they  make  Cramer's 
Studies  here.  Ehlert  makes  me  play  them  tremen- 
dously/or^e,  and  as  fast  as  I  can  go.  My  hand  gets  so 
tired  that  it  is  ready  to  break,  and  then  I  say  that  I 
cannot  go  on.    "  But  you  mmt  go  on,"  he  will  say. 


3»  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  scales.  It  seems  to  me  that  I 
play  them  so  loud  that  I  make  the  welkin  ring,  and 
he  will  say,  "  But  you  play  always  piano."  And  with 
all  this  rapidity  he  does  not  allow  a  note  to  be  missed^ 
and  if  you  happen  to  strike  a  ATrong  one  he  looks  so 
shocked  that  you  feel  ready  to  sink  into  the  floor. 
Strange  to  say,  I  enjoy  the  lessons  in  Zusammenspiel 
(duet-playing)  very  much,  although  it  is  all  reading 
at  sight.  Four  of  us  sit  down  at  two  pianos  and  read 
duets  at  sight.  Lesmann  is  a  pleasant  man,  and  he 
always  talks  so  fast  that  he  amuses  me  very  much. 
He  always  counts  and  beats  time  most  vigorously,  and 
bawls  in  your  ear,  "Eins — zwei!  Eins — zwei!"  or  some- 
times, "  Eins!"  only,  on  the  first  beat  of  every  bar. 
When,  occasionally,  we  all  get  out,  he  looks  at  us 
through  his  glasses,  and  then  such  a  volley  of  words  as 
he  hurls  at  us  is  wonderful  to  hear.  I  never  can  help 
laughing,  though  I  take  good  care  not  to  let  him  see 
me. 

But  Weitzmann,  the  Harmony  professor,  is  the  fun- 
niest of  all.  He  is  the  dearest  old  man  in  the  world,  and 
it  is  impossible  for  him  to  be  cross ;  but  he  takes  so 
much  pains  and  trouble  to  make  his  class  understand, 
and  he  has  the  most  peculiar  way  of  talking  imagin- 
able, and  accents  everything  he  says  tremendously.  I 
go  to  him  because  Ehlert  says  I  must,  but  as  I  know 
nothing  of  the  theory  of  music  (and  if  I  did,  the  names 
are  so  entirely  different  in  German  that  I  never  should 
know  what  they  are  in  English)  it  is  extremely  diffi- 
cult for  me  to  understand  him  at  all.  He  knew  I  was 
an  American,  and  let  me  pass  for  one  or  two  lessons 


A  GERMAN  PROFESSOR.  23 

without  asking  me  any  questions,  but  finally  his  Ger- 
man love  of  thoroughness  has  got  the  better  of  him, 
and  he  is  now  beginning  to  take  me  in  hand.  At  the 
last  lesson  he  wrote  some  chords  on  the  blackboard, 
and  after  holding  forth  for  some  time  he  wound  up 
with  his  usual  "  Verstehen  Sie  wohl — Jaf  (Do  you 
understand— Yes?)"  to  the  class,  who  all  shouted  "Ja,^ 
except  me.  I  kept  a  discreet  silence,  thinking  he 
would  not  notice,  but  he  suddenly  turned  on  me  and 
said,  "  Verstehen  Sie  wohl — «7a?"  I  was  as  puzzled 
what  to  say  as  the  Pharisees  were  when  they  were 
asked  if  the  baptism  of  John  were  of  heaven  or  of 
men.  I  knew  that  if  I  said  "e/a,"  he  might  call  on 
me  for  a  proof,  and  that  if  I  said  "Kein"  he  would 
undertake  to  enlighten  me,  and  that  I  should  not  un- 
derstand him. 

After  an  instant's  consideration  I  concluded  the  lat- 
ter course  was  the  safer,  and  so  I  said,  boldly,  "NeinP 
^^Komraen  Sie  hierher!  (Come  here  !)"  said  he,  and  to 
my  horror  I  had  to  step  up  to  the  blackboard  in  front  of 
this  large  class.  He  harangued  me  for  some  minutes, 
and  then  writing  some  notes  on  the  bass  clef,  he  put 
the  chalk  into  my  hands  and  told  me  to  write.  Not 
one  word  had  I  understood,  and  after  staring  blankly 
at  the  board  I  said,  "Ich  verstehe  nicht  (I  don't 
understand.)"  "Nein?"  said  he,  and  carefully  went 
over  all  his  explanation  again.  This  time  I  managed 
to  extract  that  he  wished  me  to  write  the  succession 
of  chords  that  those  bass  notes  indicated,  and  to  tie 
what  notes  I  could.  A  second  time  he  put  the 
chalk  into  my  hands,   and    told  me  to   write   the 


24  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

chords.  "  Heaven  only  knows  what  they  are  !"  thinks 
I  to  myself.  In  my  desperation,  however,  I  guessed 
at  the  first  one,  and  uttered  the  names  of  the  notes  in 
trembling  accents,  expecting  to  have  a  cannon  fired 
off  at  my  head.  Thanks  to  my  lucky  star,  it  happened 
to  be  right.  I  wrote  it  on  the  blackboard,  and  then 
as  my  wits  sharpened  I  found  the  other  chords  from 
that  one,  and  wrote  them  all  down  right.  I  drew  a 
long  breath  of  relief  as  he  released  me  from  his 
clutches,  and  sat  down  hardly  believing  I  had  done 
it.  I  have  not  now  the  least  idea  what  it  was  he  made 
me  do,  but  I  suppose  it  will  come  to  me  in  the  course 
of  the  year !  As  he  does  not  understand  a  word  of 
English,  I  cannot  say  anything  to  him  unless  I  can  say 
it  in  German,  and  as  he  is  determined  to  make  me  learn 
Harmony,  it  would  be  of  no  use  to  explain  that  I  did  not 
know  what  he  was  talking  about,  for  he  would  begin 
all  over  again,  and  go  on  ad  infinitum.  I  have  got  a 
book  on  the  Theory  of  Music,  which  I  am  reading 
with  FrSulein  W.  She  has  studied  with  Weitzmann, 
also,  and  when  I  have  caught  up  with  the  class  I  shall 
go  on  very  easily.  I  quite  adore  Weitzmann.  He  has 
the  kindest  old  face  imaginable,  and  he  hammers 
away  so  indef atigably  at  his  pupils  !  The  professors  I 
have  described  are  all  thorough  and  well-known  musi- 
cians of  Berlin,  and  I  wonder  that  people  could  tfjll 
us  before  I  came  away,  and  really  seem  to  believe  it, 
"that  I  could  learn  as  well  in  an  American  conserva- 
tory as  in  a  German  one."  In  comparison  with  the 
drill  I  am  now  receiving,  my  Boston  teaching  was 
mere  play. 


* 


CHAPTER  II. 

Clara  Schumann  and  Joachim.     The  American  Minister'a 

The  Museum.    The  Conservatory.    The  Opera. 

Tausig.    Christmas. 

Beblin,  December  12,  1869. 
I  heard  Clara  Schumann  on  Sunday,  and  on  Tuesday 
evening,  also.  She  is  a  most  wonderful  artist.  In  the 
first  concert  she  played  a  quartette  by  Schumann,  and 
you  can  imagine  how  lovely  it  was  under  the  treat- 
ment of  Clara  Schumann  for  the  piano,  Joachim  for 
the  first  violin,  De  Ahna  for  the  second,  and  Muller 
for  the  'cello.  It  was  perfect,  and  I  was  in  raptures. 
Madame  Schumann's  selection  for  the  two  concerts 
was  a  very  wide  one,  and  gave  a  full  exhibition  of  her 
powers  in  every  kind  of  music.  The  Impromptu  by 
Schumann,  Op.  90,  was  exquisite.  It  was  full  of  passion 
and  very  difficult.  The  second  of  the  Songs  without 
Words,  by  Mendelssohn,  was  the  most  fairy-like  per- 
formance. It  is  one  of  those  things  that  must  be 
tossed  off  with  the  greatest  grace  and  smoothness,  and 
it  requires  the  most  beautiful  and  delicate  technique. 
She  played  it  to  perfection.  The  terrific  Scherzo  by 
Chopin  she  did  splendidly,  but  she  kept  the  great 
octave  passages  in  the  bass  a  little  too  subordinate,  I 
thought,  and  did  not  give  it  quite  boldly  enough  for 
my  taste,  though  it  was  extremely  artistic.  Clara 
Schumann's  playing  is  very  objective.     She  seems  to 

(25) 


36  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

throw  herself  into  the  music,  instead  of  letting  the 
music  take  possession  of  her.  She  gives  you  the  most 
exquisite  pleasure  with  every  note  she  touches,  and 
has  a  wonderful  conception  and  variety  in  playing,  but 
she  seldom  whirls  you  off  your  feet. 

At  the  second  concert  she  was  even  better  than  at 
the  first,  if  that  is  possible.  She  seemed  full  of  fire, 
and  when  she  played  Bach,  she  ought  to  have  been 
crowned  with  diamonds  !  Such  nohle  playing  I  never 
heard.  In  fact  you  are  all  the  time  impressed  with 
the  nobility  and  breadth  of  her  style,  and  the  com- 
prehensiveness of  her  treatment,  and  oh,  if  you  could 
hear  her  scales!  In  short,  there  is  nothing  more  to 
be  desired  in  her  playing,  and  she  has  every  quality  of 
a  great  artist.  Many  people  say  that  Tausig  is  far 
better,  but  I  cannot  believe  it.  He  may  have  more 
technique  and  more  power,  but  nothing  else  I  am  sure. 
Everybody  raves  over  his  playing,  and  I  am  getting 
quite  impatient  for  his  return,  which  is  expected  next 
week.  I  send  you  Madame  Schumann's  photograph, 
which  is  exactly  like  her.  She  is  a  large,  very  German- 
looking  woman,  with  dark  hair  and  superb  neck  and 
arms.  At  the  last  concert  she  was  dressed  in  black 
velvet,  low  body  and  short  sleeves,  and  when  she 
struck  powerful  chords,  those  large  white  arms  came 
down  with  a  certain  splendor. 

As  for  Joachim,  he  is  perfectly  magnificent,  and 
has  amazing  power.  When  he  played  his  solo  in  that 
second  Chaconne  of  Bach's,  you  could  scarcely  believe 
it  was  only  one  violin.  He  has,  like  Madame  Schu- 
mann, the  greatest  variety  of  tone,  only  on  the  violin 


THE  SING-AKADEMIE.  27 

the  shades  can  be  made  far  more  delicate  than  on  the 
piano. 

I  thought  the  second  movement  of  Schumann's 
Quartette  perhaps  as  extraordinary  as  any  part  of  Clara 
Schumann's  performance.  It  was  very  rapid,  very  stac- 
cato, and  pianissimo  all  the  way  through.  Not  a  note 
escaped  her  fingers,  and  she  played  with  so  much  mag- 
netism that  one  could  scarcely  breathe  until  it  was  fin- 
ished. You  know  nothing  can  be  more  difficult  than 
to  play  staccato  so  very  softly  where  there  is  great 
execution  also.  Both  of  the  sonatas  for  violin  and 
piano  which  were  played  by  Madame  Schumann  and 
Joachim,  and  especially  the  one  in  A  minor,  by  Bee- 
thoven, were  divine.  Both  parts  were  equally  well 
sustained,  and  they  played  with  so  much  fire — as  if 
one  inspired  the  other.  It  was  worth  a  trip  across  the 
Atlantic  just  to  hear  those  two  performances. 

The  Sing-Akademie,  where  all  the  best  concerts  are 
given,  is  not  a  very  large  hall,  but  it  is  beautifully 
proportioned,  and  the  acoustic  is  perfect.  The  fres- 
coes are  very  delicate,  and  on  the  left  are  boxes  all 
along,  which  add  much  to  the  beauty  of  the  hall,  with 
their  scarlet  and  gold  flutings.  Clara  Schumann  is  a 
great  favorite  here,  and  there  was  such  a  rush  for 
seats  that,  though  we  went  early  for  our  tickets,  all  the 
good  parquet  seats  were  gone,  and  we  had  to  get 
places  on  the  estrade,  or  place  where  the  chorus  sits — 
when  there  is  one.  But  I  found  it  delightful  for  a 
piano  concert,  for  you  can  be  as  close  to  the  performer 
as  you  like,  and  at  the  same  time  see  the  faces  of  the 
audience.  I  saw  ever  so  many  people  that  I  knew, 
and  we  kept  bowing  away  at  each  other. 


28  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

Just  think  how  convenient  it  is  here  with  regard  to 
public  amusements,  for  ladies  can  go  anywhere  alone  ! 
You  take  a  droschkie  and  they  drive  you  anywhere 
for  five  groschen,  which  is  about  fifteen  cents.  When 
you  get  into  the  concert  hall  you  go  into  the  garde- 
robe  and  take  off  your  things,  and  hand  them  over  to 
the  care  of  the  woman  who  stands  there,  and  then  you 
walk  in  and  sit  down  comfortably  as  you  would  in  a 
parlour,  and  are  not  roasted  in  your  hat  and  cloak 
while  at  the  concert,  and  chilled  when  you  go  out,  as 
we  are  in  America.  Their  programmes,  too,  are  not 
so  unconscionably  long  as  ours,  and,  in  short,  their 
whole  method  of  concert-giving  is  more  rational  than 
with  us.  I  always  enjoy  the  garde-robe,  for  if  you 
have  acquaintances  you  are  sure  to  meet  them,  and 
you  have  no  idea  how  exciting  it  is  in  a  foreign  city  to 
see  anybody  you  know. 


Berlin,  December  19, 1869. 

I  suppose  you  are  muttering  maledictions  on  my 
head  for  not  writing,  but  I  am  so  busy  that  I  have  no 
time  to  answer  my  letters,  which  are  accumulating 
upon  my  hands  at  a  terrible  rate.  This  week  I  have 
been  out  every  night  but  one,  so  that  I  have  had  to 
do  all  my  practicing  and  German  and  Harmony  lessons 
in  the  day-time  ;  and  these,  with  my  daily  hour  and  a 
half  at  the  conservatory,  have  been  as  much  as  I  could 
manage. 

On  Monday  I  went  to  a  party  at  the  Bancroft's, 
which  I  enjoyed  extremely.    It  was  a  very  brilliant 


MR.  BURLINGAME.  29 

affair,  and  the  toilettes  were  superb.  At  the  entrance 
I  was  ushered  in  by  a  very  fine  servant  dressed  in  liv- 
ery. A  second  man  showed  me  the  dressing-room, 
where  my  bewildered  sight  first  rested  on  a  lot  of 
Chinamen  in  festive  attire.  I  could  not  make  out  for 
a  second  what  they  were,  and  I  thought  to  myself, 
"  Is  it  possible  I  have  mistaken  the  invitation,  and 
this  is  a  masquerade?"  Another  glance  showed  me 
that  they  were  Chinese,  and  it  turned  out  that  Mr. 
Burlingame,  the  Chinese  Minister,  was  there,  and  these 
men  were  part  of  his  suite.  The  ladies  and  gentle- 
men had  the  same  dressing-room,  which  was  a  new 
feature  in  parties  to  me,  and  as  we  took  off  our  things 
the  servant  took  them  and  gave  us  a  ticket  for  them, 
as  they  do  at  the  opera.  I  should  think  there  were 
about  a  hundred  persons  present.  There  were  a  great 
many  handsome  women,  and  they  were  beautifully 
dressed  and  much  be-diamonded  and  pearled.  Corn- 
colour  seemed  to  be  the  fashion,  and  there  were  more 
silks  of  that  colour  than  any  other. 

Mr.  Burlingame  seemed  to  be  a  very  genial,  easy 
man.  I  was  not  presented  to  him,  but  stood  very 
near  him  part  of  the  time.  He  looks  upon  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Chinese  into  our  country  as  a'  great 
blessing,  and  laughs  at  the  idea  of  it  being  an  evil. 
He  says  that  the  reason  railroads  can't  be  introduced 
into  China  is  because  the  whole  country  is  one  vast 
grave-yard,  and  you  can't  dig  any  depth  without  un- 
earthing human  bones,  so  that  there  would  be  a  revo- 
lution on  the  part  of  the  people  if  it  were  done  now, 
but  it  will  gradually  be  brought  about.     He  travels 


30  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

with  a  suite  of  forty  attendants,  and  says  he  has  got 
all  his  treaties  here  arranged  to  his  wishes,  and  that 
Prussia  has  promised  to  follow  the  United  States  in 
everything  that  they  have  agreed  on  with  China.  He 
is  going  to  resign  his  office  in  a  year  and  go  back  to 
America,  where  he  wants  to  get  into  politics  again. 
Mr.  Bancroft  introduced  many  of  the  ladies  to  the 
Chinese,  one  of  whom  could  speak  English,  and  he 
interpreted  to  the  others.  It  was  very  quaint  to  see 
them  all  make  their  deep  bows  in  silence  when  some 
one  was  presented  to  them.  They  were  in  the  Chinese 
costume — Turkish  trousers,  white  silk  coats,  or  blouses, 
and  red  turbans,  and  their  hair  braided  down  their 
backs  in  a  long  tail  that  nearly  touched  their  heels. 

On  Thursday  I  went  to  Dr.  A.'s  to  dinner.  He 
seems  to  be  a  very  influential  man  here,  and  is  a  great 
favorite  with  the  Americans.  He  has  a  great  big 
heart,  and  I  suspect  that  is  the  reason  of  it.  Mrs.  A., 
too,  is  very  lovely.  I  saw  there  Mr.  Theodore  Fay, 
who  used  to  be  our  minister  in  Switzerland,  and  who 
is  also  an  author.  He  is  very  interesting,  and  the 
most  earnest  Christian  I  ever  met.  He  has  the  tender- 
est  sympathies  in  the  world,  and  in  a  man  this  is  very 
striking.  He  has  a  high  and  beautiful  forehead,  and  a 
certain  spirituality  of  expression  that  appeals  to  you  at 
once  and  touches  you,  also.  At  least  he  makes  a  pecu- 
liar impression  on  me.  There  is  something  entirely 
different  about  him  from  other  men,  but  I  don't  know 
what  it  is,  unless  it  be  his  deep  religious  feeling,  which 
shines  out  unconsciously. 

Last  week  I  made  my  first  visit  to  the  Museum.    It 


THE  MUSEUM.  31 


is  one  of  the  great  sights  of  Berlin,  but  it  is  so 
immense  that  I  only  saw  a  few  rooms.  In  fact  there 
are  two  Museums — an  old  and  a  new.  I  was  in  the  new 
one.  It  is  a  perfect  treasure  house,  and  the  floors 
alone  are  a  study.  All  are  inlaid  with  little  coloured 
marbles,  and  every  one  is  different  in  pattern.  One 
of  the  most  beautiful  of  the  rooms  was  a  large  circular 
dome-roofed  apartment  round  which  were  placed  the 
statues  of  the  gods,  and  in  the  centre  stood  a  statue 
in  bronze  of  one  of  the  former  German  kings  in  a 
Roman  suit  of  armour.  Half  way  up  from  the  floor 
ran  round  a  little  gallery  in  which  you  could  stand 
and  look  down  over  the  railing,  and  here  were  placed 
on  the  walls  Raphael's  cartoons,  which  are  fac-similes 
of  those  in  the  Vatican,  and  are  all  woven  in  arras. 
They  are  very  wonderful,  and  you  feel  as  if  you  could 
not  look  at  them  long  enough.  The  contrast  is 
impressive  as  you  look  down  and  see  all  the  heathen 
statues  standing  on  the  marble  floor,  each  one  like  a 
separate  sphinx,  and  then  look  up  and  see  all  the 
Christian  subjects  of  Raphael.  The  statues  are  so 
cold  and  white  and  distant,  and  the  pictures  are  so 
warm  and  bright  in  colour.  They  seem  to  express  the 
difference  between  the  ancient  and  the  modern  relig- 
ions. We  went  through  the  rooms  of  Greek  and 
Roman  statues,  of  which  there  is  an  immense  number, 
and  on  the  walls  are  Greek  and  Italian  landscapes,  all 
done  by  celebrated  painters. 

We  had  to  pass  through  these  rooms  rather  hastily 
in  order  to  get  a  glimpse  of  the  "  Treppen  Halle," 
which  is  the  place  where  the  two  grand  stair-cases 


MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 


meet  that  carry  you  into  the  upper  rooms  of  the 
Museum.  This  is  magnificent,  and  is  all  gilding  and 
decoration.  An  immense  statue  stands  by  each  door, 
and  on  the  wall  are  six  great  pictures  by  Kaulbach, 
three  on  each  side.  "  The  Last  Judgment,"  of  which 
you've  seen  photographs,  is  one  of  them.  I  ought  to 
go  to  the  Museum  often  to  see  it  properly,  but  it  is 
such  a  long  distance  off  that  I  can't  get  the  time. 
Berlin  is  a  very  large  city,  and  the  distances  are  as 
great  as  they  are  in  New  York. 

At  the  last  "  Reading  "  at  the  conservatory  the  four 
best  scholars  played  last.  One  of  them  was  an  Amer- 
ican, from  San  Francisco,  a  Mr.  Trenkel,  but  who  has 
German  parents.  He  plays  exquisitely,  and  has  just 
such  a  poetic  musical  conception  as  Dresel,  but  a 
beautiful  technique,  also.  He  is  a  thorough  artist,  and 
he  looks  it,  too,  as  he  is  dark  and  pale,  and  very  strik- 
ing. I  always  like  to  see  him  play,  for  he  droops  his 
dark  eyes,  and  his  high  pale  forehead  is  thrown  back, 
and  stands  out  so  well  defined  over  his  black  brows. 
His  expression  is  very  serious  and  his  manner  very 
quiet,  and  he  has  a  sort  of  fascination  about  him.  He 
is  a  particular  favorite  of  Tausig's. 

After  he  played,came  a  young  lady  who  has  been  a  pu- 
pil of  Von  Billow  for  two  years.  She  plays  splendidly, 
and  I  could  have  torn  my  hair  with  envy  when  she  got 
up,  and  Ehlert  went  up  to  her  and  shook  her  hand  and 
told  her  before  the  whole  school  that  she  had  "  real 
talent.  After  her  came  my  favorite,  little  Fr^ulein 
Timanoff,  who  sat  down  and  did  still  better.  She 
is  a  little  Russian,  only  fifteen,  and  is  still  in  short 


THE  BERLIN  OPERA  HOUSE.  33 

dresses.  She  has  almost  white  hair,  it  is  so  light,  and 
she  combs  it  straight  back  and  wears  it  in  two  long 
braids  down  her  back,  which  makes  her  look  very 
childish.  It  is  really  wonderful  to  see  her !  She 
takes  her  seat  with  the  greatest  confidence,  and  plays 
with  all  the  boldness  of  an  artist. 

Almost  all  the  scholars  in  Tausig's  class  are  study- 
ing to  play  in  public,  and  I  should  think  he  would  be 
very  proud  of  all  those  that  I  have  heard.  There  are 
many  scholars  in  the  conservatory,  but  he  teaches 
only  the  most  advanced.  He  only  returned  to  Berlin 
on  Saturday,  and  I  have  not  yet  seen  him,  though  I 
am  dying  to  do  so,  for  all  the  Germans  are  wild  over 
his  playing.  The  girls  in  his  class  are  mortally  afraid 
of  him,  and  when  he  gets  angry  he  tells  them  they 
play  "  like  a  rhinoceros,"  and  many  other  little  re- 
marks equally  pleasing. 


Berlin,  January  11, 1870. 
Since  my  last  letter  I  have  been  quite  secluded,  and 
have  seen  nothing  of  the  gay  world.  I  have  been  to 
the  opera  twice — once  to  "Fantaska"  a  grand  ballet, 
and  the  second  time  to  ^' Trovatore!^  The  opera  house 
here  is  magnificent,  and  I  would  that  I  could  go  to  it 
every  week.  It  is  extremely  difficult  to  get  tickets  to 
it,  as  the  rich  Jews  manage  to  get  the  monopoly  of 
them  and  the  opera  house  is  crowded  every  night.  It 
is  the  most  brilliant  building,  and  so  exquisitely 
painted  !  All  the  heads  and  figures  of  the  Muses  and 
portraits  of  composers  and  poets  which  decorate  it,  are 
3 


34  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

so  soft  and  so  beautifully  done.  The  curtain  even  is 
charming.  It  represents  the  sea,  and  great  sea  mon- 
sters are  swimming  about  with  nymphs  and  Cupids 
and  all  sorts  of  things,  and  one  lovely  nymph  floats  in 
the  air  with  a  thin  gauzy  veil  which  trails  along  after 
her.  The  scenery  and  dresses  are  superb,  and  I  never 
imagined  anything  to  equal  them.  The  orchestra,  too, 
plays  divinely. 

The  singing  is  the  only  thing  which  could  be  im- 
proved. The  Lucca,  who  is  the  grand  attraction,  is  a 
pretty  little  creature,  but  I  did  not  find  her  voice  re- 
markable. The  Berlinese  worship  her,  and  whenever 
Lucca  sings  there  is  a  rush  for  the  tickets.  VVachtel 
and  Niemann  are  the  star  singers  among  the  men. 
Niemann  I  have  not  heard,  but  Wachtel  we  should 
not  rave  over  in  America.  I  am  in  doubt  whether 
indeed  the  Germans  know  what  the  best  singing  is. 
They  have  most  wonderful  choruses,  but  when  it 
comes  to  soloists  they  have  none  that  are  really  great 
— like  Parepa  and  Adelaide  Phillips ;  at  least,  that  is 
my  judgment  after  hearing  the  best  singers  in  Berlin, 
though  as  the  voice  is  not  my  "  instrument,"  I  will 
not  be  too  confident  about  it.  Everything  else  is  so 
far  beyond  what  we  have  at  home  that  perhaps  I  un- 
consciously expect  the  climax  of  all — the  solo  sing- 
ing, to  be  proportionally  finer  also. 

They  have  beautiful  ballet-dancers  here,  though. 
There  is  one  little  creature  named  Fraulein  David 
who  is  a  wonderful  artist.  She  does  such  steps  that 
it  turns  one's  head  to  see  her.  She  is  as  light  as  down, 
and  so  extremely  graceful  that  when  you  watch  her 


TAU8IG.  35 


floating  about  to  the  enchanting  ballet  music,  it  is  too 
captivating.  There  were  four  other  dancers  nearly 
as  good,  who  were  all  dressed  exactly  alike  in  white 
dresses  trimmed  with  pink  satin.  They  would  come 
out  first,  and  dance  all  together,  sometimes  separately 
and  sometimes  forming  a  figure  in  the  middle  of  the 
stage.  Then  suddenly  little  David,  who  was  dressed 
in  white  and  blue,  would  bound  foi'ward.  The  others 
would  immediately  break  up  and  retire  to  the  side  of 
the  stage,  and  she  would  execute  a  wonderful  paa  seul. 
Then  she  would  retire,  and  the  others  would  come 
forward  again,  and  so  it  went.  It  was  perfectly  beau- 
tiful. Finally  they  all  danced  together  and  did 
everything  exactly  alike,  though  little  David  could 
always  bend  lower,  and  take  the  "  positions "  (as  we 
used  to  say  at  Dio  Lewis's,)  better  than  all  the  rest. 

On  Friday  I  am  going  to  hear  Rubinstein  play.  I 
suppose  he  will  give  a  beautiful  concert,  as  he  and 
Billow,  Tausig  and  Clara  Schumann  are  the  grand 
celebrities  now  on  the  piano,  Liszt  having  given  up 
playing  in  public.  After  our  lesson  was  over  yester- 
day, Ehlert  took  his  leave,  and  left  us  to  wait  for 
Tausig — my  dear ! — who  was  to  hear  us  each  play. 
He  came  in  very  late,  and  just  before  it  was  time  to 
give  his  own  lesson.  He  is  precisely  like  the  photo- 
graph I  sent  you,  but  is  very  short  indeed — ^too  short, 
in  fact,  for  good  looks — but  he  has  a  remarkably 
vivid  expression  of  the  eyes.  He  came  in,  and, 
scarcely  looking  at  us,  and  without  taking  the  trouble 
to  bow  even,  he  turned  on  me  and  said,  imperiously, 
"  Spielen  Sie  mir  Etwas  vor.      (Play  something  for 


36  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

me.)"  I  got  up  and  played  first  an  Etude^  and  then  he 
asked  for  tJie  scales,  and  after  I  had  played  a  few  he  told 
me  I  "  had  talent,"  and  to  come  to  his  lessons,  and  I 
would  learn  much.  I  went  accordingly  the  next  after- 
noon. There  were  two  girls  only  in  the  class,  but  they 
were  both  far  advanced.  I  had  never  heard  either  of 
them  play  before.  The  second  one  played  a  fearfully 
difficult  concerto  by  Chopin,  which  I  once  heard  from 
Mills.  It  is  exquisitely  beautiful,  and  she  did  it  very 
well.  From  time  to  time  Tausig  would  sweep  her  off 
the  stool,  and  play  himself,  and  he  is  indeed  a  perfect 
wonder !  If,  as  they  say,  Liszt's  trill  is  "  like  the  war- 
ble of  a  bird,"  his  is  as  much  so.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  he  is  so  celebrated,  and  I  long  to  hear  him  in 
concert,  where  he  will  do  full  justice  to  his  powers. 
He  thrills  you  to  the  very  marrow  of  your  bones.  He 
is  divorced  from  his  wife,  and  I  think  it  not  improbable 
that  she  could  not  live  with  him,  for  he  looks  as 
haughty  and  despotic  as  Lucifer,  though  he  has  a 
very  winning  way  with  him  when  he  likes.  His  play- 
ing is  spoken  of  as  sans  pareil. 

I  spent  a  very  pleasant  Christmas.  The  family  had 
a  pretty  little  tree,  and  we  all  gave  each  other  presents. 
It  was  charming  to  go  out  in  the  streets  the  week 
before.  The  Germans  make  the  greatest  time  over 
Christmas,  and  the  streets  are  full  of  Christmas  trees, 
the  shops  are  crammed  with  lovely  things,  and  there 
are  little  booths  erected  all  along  the  sidewalks 
filled  with  toys.  They  have  special  cakes  and  con- 
fections that  they  prepare  only  at  this  season. 


CHAPTER  III. 


Taiuig  and  Rubinstein.    Tausig's  Pupils.    The  Bancrofts.    A 
German  Radical. 


Berlin,  Februa/ry  8, 1870. 
I  have  heard  both  Rubinstein  and  Tausig  in  concert 
since  I  last  wrote.  They  are  both  wonderful,  but  in 
quite  a  'different  way.  Rubinstein  has  the  greatest 
power  a.xd  abandon  in  playing  that  you  can  imagine, 
and  is  extremely  exciting.  I  never  saw  a  man  to  whom 
it  seemed  so  easy  to  play.  It  is  as  if  he  were  just 
sporting  with  the  piano,  and  could  do  what  he  pleased 
with  it.  Tausig,  on  the  contrary,  is  extremely 
restrained,  and  has  not  quite  enthusiasm  enough,  but 
he  is  absolutely  perfect,  and  plays  with  the  greatest 
expression.  He  is  pre-eminent  in  grace  and  delicacy 
of  execution,  but  seems  to  hold  back  his  power  in 
a  concert  room,  which  is  very  singular,  for  when  he 
plays  to  his  classes  in  the  conservatory  he  seems  all 
passion.  His  conception  is  so  very  refined  that  some- 
times it  is  a  little  too  much  so,  while  Rubinstein  is 
occasionally  too  precipitate.  I  have  not  yet  decided 
which  I  like  best,  but  in  my  estimation  Clara  Schu- 
mann as  a  whole  is  superior  to  either,  although  she 
has  not  their  unlimited  technique. 
(37) 


38  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

This  was  Tausig's  programme  : 

1.  Senate  Op.  53.  ....        Beethoven. 

2.  a.  Bourr6e         -       .       .        .       .       .    Bach. 

b.  Presto  Scherzando,  -       -        -        Mendelssohn. 

c.  Barcarole  Op.  60,        -        •  \ 

d.  Ballade      Op.  47,    -        -     j-        .        Chopin. 

e.  Zwei  Mazurkas  Op.  59  u  33, ) 

f.  Aufforderung  zum  Tanz,  -        -     Weber. 


8.  Kreisleriana  Op.  16,     i 

8  Phantasie  Stucke,    \        '       '         Schumann. 
4.  a.    Standchen  von  Shakespeare  \ 

nach  Schubert,  >•  Liszt, 

b.    Ungarische  Rhapsodic,  ) 

Tausig's  octave  playing  is  the  most  extraordinary  I 
ever  heard.  The  last  great  effect  on  his  programme 
was  in  the  Rhapsody  by  Liszt,  in  an  octave  varia- 
tion. He  first  played  it  so  jjianissimo  that  you  could 
only  just  hear  it,  and  then  he  repeated  the  variation 
and  gave  it  tremendously  forte.  It  was  colossal! 
His  scales  surpass  Clara  Schumann's,  and  it  seems  as 
if  he  played  with  velvet  fingers,  his  touch  is  so  very  soft. 
He  played  the  great  C  major  Sonata  by  Beethoven — 
Moscheles'  favorite,  you  know.  His  conception  of  it 
was  not  brilliant,  as  I  expected  it  would  be,  but  very 
calm  and  dreamy,  and  the  first  movement  especially 
he  took  very  piano.  He  did  it  most  beautifully,  but 
I  was  not  quite  satisfied  with  the  last  movement,  for  I 
expected  he  would  make  a  grand  climax  with  /those 
passionate  trills,  and  he  did  not.  Chopin  he  plays 
divinely,  and  that  little  Bourr^e  of  Bach's  that  I  used 
to  play,  was  magical.  He  played  it  like  lightning,  and 
made  it  perfectly  bewitching. 


LITTLE  TIMANOFF.  39 

Altogether,  he  is  a  great  man.  But  Olara  Schu- 
mann always  puts  herself  en  rapport  with  you  immedi- 
ately. Tausig  and  Rubinstein  do  not  sway  you  as  she 
does,  and,  therefore,  I  think  she  is  the  greater  inter- 
preter, although  I  imagine  the  Germans  would  not 
agree  with  me.  Tausig  has  such  a  little  hand  that  I 
wonder  he  has  been  able  to  acquire  his  immense  vir- 
tuosity. He  is  only  thirty  years  old,  and  is  much 
younger  than  Rubinstein  or  Btilow. 

The  day  after  Tausig's  concert  I  went,  as  usual,  to 
hear  him  give  the  lesson  to  his  best  class  of  girls.  I 
got  there  a  little  before  the  hour,  and  the  girls  were 
in  the  dressing-room  waiting  for  the  young  men  to  be 
through  with  their  lesson.  They  were  talking  about 
the  concert.  "  Was  it  not  beautiful?"  said  little  Tim- 
anoff,  to  me  ;  "I  did  not  sleep  the  whole  night  after  it !" 
— a  touch  of  sentiment  that  quite  surprised  me  in  that 
small  personage,  and  made  me  feel  some  compunc- 
tions, as  I  had  slept  soundly  myself.  "  I  have  prac- 
ticed five  hours  to-day  already,"  she  added.  Just  then 
the  young  men  came  out  of  the  class-room  and  we 
passed  into  it.  Tausig  was  standing  by  the  piano. 
"  Begin  !"  said  he,  to  Timanoff,  more  shortly  even  than 
usual ;  "  I  trust  you  have  brought  me  a  study  this 
time."  He  always  insists  upon  a  study  in  addition  to 
the  piece.  Timanoff  replied  in  the  affirmativCj  and 
proceeded  to  open  Chopin's  Etudes.  She  played  the 
great  A  minor  "  Winter  Wind  "  study,  and  most  mag- 
nificently, too,  starting  off  with  the  greatest  brilliancy 
and  "go."  I  was  perfectly  amazed  at  such  a  feat 
from  such  a  child,  and  expected  that  Tausig  would 


40  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

exclaim  with  admiration.  Kot  so  that  Rhadaman- 
thus.  He  heard  it  through  without  comment  or 
correction,  and  when  Timanoff  had  finished,  simply 
remarked  very  composedly,  "  So !  Have  you  taken 
the  next  Etude,  also  ?"  as  if  the  great  A  minor  were 
not  enough  for  one  meal !  It  is  eight  pages  long  to 
begin  with,  and  there  is  no  let-up  to  the  difficulty  all 
the  way  through.  Afterward,  however,  he  told  the 
young  men  that  he  "could  not  have  done  it  better" 
himself. 

Tausig  is  so  hasty  and  impatient  that  to  be  in  his 
classes  must  be  a  fearful  ordeal.  He  will  not  bear  the 
slightest  fault.  The  last  time  I  went  into  his  class  to 
hear  him  teach  he  was  dreadful.  FrSulein  H.  began, 
and  she  has  remarkable  talent,  and  is  far  beyond  me. 
She  would  not  play  piano  enough  to  suit  him,  and 
finally  he  stamped  his  foot  at  her,  snatched  her  hand 
from  the  piano,  and  said  :  "  Will  you  play  piano  or 
not,  for  if  not  we  will  go  no  farther?"  The  second 
girl  sat  down  and  played  a  few  lines.  He  made  her 
begin  over  again  several  times,  and  finally  came  up 
and  took  her  music  away  and  slapped  it  down  on  the 
piano, — "  You  have  been  studying  this  for  weeks  and 
you  can't  play  a  note  of  it ;  practice  it  for  a  month 
and  then  you  can  bring  it  to  me  again,"  he  said. 

The  third  was  Fraulein  Timanoff,  who  is  a  lit- 
tle genius,  I  think.  She  brought  a  Sonata  by  Schu- 
bert— the  lovely  one  in  A  minor — and  by  the  way  he 
behaved  Tausig  must  have  a  particular  feeling  about 
that  particular  Sonata.  Timanoff  began  running  it 
off  in  her  usual  nimble  style,  having  practiced  it  evi- 


TAUSIG  TEACHING.  41 

dently  every  minute  of  the  time  when  she  was  not 
asleep,  since  the  last  lesson.  She  had  not  proceeded 
far  down  the  first  page  when  he  stopped  her,  and  began 
to  fuss  over  the  expression.  She  began  again,  but 
this  time  with  no  better  luck.  A  third  time,  but  still 
he  was  dissatisfied,  though  he  suffered  her  to  go  on  a 
little  farther.  He  kept  stopping  her  every  moment 
in  the  most  tantalizing  and  exasperating  manner.  If 
it  had  been  I,  I  should  have  cried,  but  Timanoff  is 
well  broken,  and  only  flushed  deeply  to  the  very  tips  of 
her  small  ears.  From  an  apple  blossom  she  changed 
to  a  carnation.  Tausig  grew  more  and  more  savage, 
and  made  her  skip  whole  pages  in  his  impatience. 
"  Play  here  !"  he  would  say,  in  the  most  imperative  tone, 
pointing  to  a  half  or  whole  page  farther  on.  "  This  I 
cannot  hear ! — Go  on  farther ! — It  is  too  bad  to  be 
listened  to  !"  Finally,  he  struck  the  music  with  the 
back  of  his  hand,  and  exclaimed,  in  a  despairing  way, 
"  Kind^  es  liegt  eine  Seele  darin.  Weiss  du  nicht  es 
liegt  eine  Seele  darin  f  (Child,  there's  a  soul  in  the 
piece.  Don't  you  know  there  is  a  soul  in  it?)"  To 
the  little  Timanoff,  who  has  no  soul,  and  who  is  not 
suflBciently  experienced  to  counterfeit  one,  this  speech 
evidently  conveyed  no  particular  idea.  She  ran  on  as 
glibly  as  ever  till  Tausig  could  endure  no  more,  and 
shut  up  the  music.  I  was  much  disappointed,  as  it 
was  new  to  me,  and  I  like  to  hear  Timanoff's  little 
fingers  tinkle  over  fhe  keys,  "Seele"  or  no  "Seele." 
She  has  a  most  accurate  and  dainty  way  of  doing 
eveiything,  and  somehow,  in  her  healthy  little  brain 
I  hardly  wish  for  Seele! 


42  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

Last  of  all  Fraulein  L.  played,  and  she  alone  suited 
Tausig.  She  is  a  Swede,  and  is  the  best  scholar  he 
has,  but  she  has  such  frightfully  ugly  hands,  and 
holds  them  so  terribly,  that  when  I  look  at  her  I  can- 
not enjoy  her  playing.  Tausig  always  praises  her  very 
much,  and  she  is  tremendously  ambitious. 

Tausig  has  a  charming  face,  full  of  expression  and 
very  sensitive.  He  is  extremely  sharp-sighted,  and 
has  eyes  in  the  back  of  his  head,  I  believe.  He  is  far 
too  small  and  too  despotic  to  be  fascinating,  however, 
though  he  has  a  sort  of  captivating  way  with  him 
when  he  is  in  a  good  humor. 

I  was  dreadfully  sorry  to  hear  of  poor  Gottschalk's 
death.  He  had  a  golden  touch,  and  equal  to  any  in 
the  world,  I  think.  But  what  a  romantic  way  to  die  ! 
— to  fall  senseless  at  his  instrument,  while  he  was 
playing  "ia  Morte^  It  was  very  strange.  If  any- 
thing more  is  in  the  papers  about  him  you  must  send 
it  to  me,  for  the  infatuation  that  I  and  99,999  other 
American  girls  once  felt  for  him,  still  lingers  in  my 
breast ! 

On  Saturday  night  I  went  for  the  first  time  to  hear 
the  Berlin  Symphony  Kapelle.  It  is  composed  only 
of  artists,  and  is  the  most  splendid  music  imaginable. 
De  Ahna,  for  instance,  is  one  of  the  violinists,  and  he 
is  not  far  behind  Joachim.  We  have  no  conception 
of  such  an  orchestra  in  America.*  The  Philharmonic 
of  New  York  approaches  it,  but  is  still  a  long  way  off. 
This  orchestra  is  so  perfect,  and  plays  with  such  pre- 

^Thls  was  written  before  the  fall  development  of  the  Thomas  Orchestra. 
The  writer  had  heard  it  only  in  its  infancy. 


BERLIN  SYMPHONY  KAPELLB.  4S 

cision,  that  you  can't  realize  that  there  are  any  perform- 
ers at  all.  It  is  just  a  great  wave  of  sound  that  rolls 
over  you  as  smooth  as  glass.  As  the  concert  halls  are 
much  smaller  here,  the  music  is  much  louder,  and 
every  man  not  only  plays  piano  and  forte  where  it  is 
marked,  but  he  draws  the  tone  out  of  his  violin.  They 
have  the  greatest  pathos,  consequently,  in  the  soft 
parts,  and  overwhelming  power  in  the  loud.  Where 
great  expression  is  required  the  conductor  almost 
ceases  to  beat  time,  and  it  seems  as  if  the  performers 
took  it  ad  libitum;  but  they  understand  each  other 
so  well  that  they  play  like  one  man.  It  is  too  ecstatic  !  I 
observed  the  greatest  difference  in  the  horn  playing. 
Instead  of  coming  in  in  a  monotonous  sort  of  way 
as  it  does  at  home,  and  always  with  the  same  degree 
of  loudness,  here,  when  it  is  solo,  it  begins  round  and 
smooth  and  full,  and  then  gently  modulates  until  the 
tone  seems  to  sigh  itself  out,  dying  away  at  last  with 
a  little  tremolo  that  is  perfectly  melting.  I  never 
before  heard  such  an  effect.  When  the  trumpets 
come  in  it  is  like  the  crack  of  doom,  and  you  should 
hear  the  way  they  play  the  drums.  I  never  was  satis- 
fied with  the  way  they  strike  the  drums  in  New  York 
and  Boston,  for  it  always  seemed  as  if  they  thought 
the  parchment  would  break.  Here,  sometimes  they 
give  such  a  sharp  stroke  that  it  startles  me,  though, 
of  course,  it  is  not  often.  But  it  adds  immensely  to 
the  accent,  and  makes  your  heart  beat,  I  can  tell  you. 
They  played  Schubert's  great  symphony,  and  Beetho- 
ven's in  B  major,  and  I  could  scarcely  believe  my 
own  ears  at  the  difference  between  this  orchestra  and 
ours.    It  is  as  great  as  between and  Tausig. 


44  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 


Berlin,  March  4, 1870. 

Tausig  is  off  to  Russia  to-day  on  a  concert  tour,  and 
will  not  return  until  the  1st  of  May.  Out  of  six 
months  he  has  been  in  Berlin  about  two  and  a  half ! 
However,  as  I  am  not  yet  in  his  class  it  doesn't  affect 
me  much,  but  I  should  think  his  scholars  would  be 
provoked  at  such  long  absences.  That  is  the  worst 
of  having  such  a  great  artist  for  a  master.  I  believe 
we  are  to  have  no  vacation  in  the  summer  though, 
and  that  he  has  promised  to  remain  here  from  May 
until  November  without  going  off.  Ehlert  and  Tau- 
sig have  had  a  grand  quarrel,  and  Ehlert  is  going  to 
leave  the  conservatory  in  April.  I  am  very  sorry,  for 
he  is  an  admirable  teacher,  and  I  like  him  extremely. 

We  had  another  Musical  Reading  on  Sunday,  at 
which  I  played,  but  all  the  conservatory  classes  were 
there,  and  all  the  teachers,  with  Tausig,  also,  so  it  was 
a  pretty  hard  ordeal.  The  girls  said  I  turned  deadly 
pale  when  I  sat  down  to  the  piano,  and  well  I  might,  for 
here  you  cannot  play  any  thing  that  the  scholars  have  not 
either  played  themselves  or  are  perfectly  familiar  with, 
so  they  criticise  you  without  mercy.  Tausig  plays  so 
magnificently  that  you  know  beforehand  that  a  thing 
can  never  be  more  than  comparatively  good  in  his 
eyes.  Fraulein  L.  is  the  only  one  of  his  pupils  that 
plays  to  suit  him.  I  do  not  like  her  playing  so  much 
myself,  because  it  sounds  as  if  she  had  tried  to  imitate 
him  exactly — which  she  probably  does.  It  does  not 
seem  spontaneous,  and  she  is  an  affected  creature. 
They  all  think  '  the  world '  of  her  at  the  conservatory. 


A  STRANGE  GIRL.  45 

and  I  suppose  she  is  quite  extraordinary ;  but  I  prefer 
Fraulein  Timanoff — "die  kleine  Person"  as  Tau- 
sig  calls  her — and  she  is,  indeed,  a  "  little  person." 
On  Sunday  Fraulein  L.  played  the  first  part  of  a 
Sonata  by  Chopin,  and  Tausig  was  quite  enchanted 
with  her  performance.  I  thought  he  was  going  to 
embrace  her,  he  jumped  up  so  impetuously  and  ran 
over  to  her.  He  declared  that  it  could  not  be  better 
played,  and  said  he  would  not  hear  anything  else  after 
that,  and  so  the  school  was  dismissed,  although  sev- 
eral had  not  played  that  expected  to  do  so. 

Tausig  has  one  scholar  who  is  a  very  singular 
girl — the  Fraulein  H.  I  mentioned  to  you  before, 
who  has  studied  with  Biilow.  She  is  half  French  and 
half  German,  and  speaks  both  languages.  She  is  full 
of  talent  and  cannot  be  over  eighteen,  but  she  is  the 
most  intense  character,  and  is  a  perfect  child  of  nature. 
One  can't  help  smiling  at  everything  she  does,  be- 
cause she  goes  at  everything  so  hard  and  so  uncon- 
sciously. When  the  other  girls  are  playing  she  folds 
her  arms  and  plays  with  her  fingers  against  her  sides 
all  the  time,  and  when  her  turn  comes  she  seizes  her 
music,  jumps  up,  and  rushes  for  the  piano  as  fast 
as  she  can.  She  hasn't  the  least  timidity,  and  on 
Sunday  when  Tausig  called  out  her  name  he  scarcely 
got  the  words  out  before  she  said,  "Ja"  to  the  great 
amusement  of  the  class  (for  none  of  us  answered  to 
our  names)  and  ran  to  the  piano. 

She  sat  down  with  the  chair  half  crooked,  and 
almost  on  the  side  of  it,  but  she  never  stopped  to 
arrange  herself,  but  dashed  off  a  prelude  out  of  her 


46  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

own  head,  and  then  played  her  piece.  When  she  got 
through  she  never  changed  countenance,  but  was  back 
in  her  seat  before  you  could  say  "  Jack  Kobinson." 
She  is  as  passionate  as  Tausig,  and  so  they  usually 
have  a  scene  over  her  lesson.  He  is  always  either 
half  amused  at  her  or  very  angry,  and  is  terribly 
severe  with  her.  When  he  stamps  his  foot  at  her  she 
makes  up  a  face,  and  the  blood  rushes  up  into  her 
head,  and  I  believe  she  would  beat  him  if  she  dared. 
She  always  plays  as  impetuously  as  she  does  every- 
thing else,  and  then  he  stops  his  ears  and  tells  her  she 
makes  too  much  "  S^ectakeV^  (his  favorite  expression). 
Then  she  begins  over  again  two  or  three  times,  but 
always  in  the  same  way.  He  snatches  the  music  from 
the  piano  and  tells  her  that  is  enough.  Then  the  class 
bursts  out  laughing  and  she  goes  to  her  seat  and  ories. 
But  she  is  too  proud  to  let  the  other  girls  see  her  wipe 
her  eyes,  and  so  she  sits  up  straight,  and  tries  to  look 
unconcerned,  but  the  tears  trickle  down  her  cheeks 
one  after  the  other,  and  drop  off  her  chin  all  the  rest 
of  the  hour.  By  the  time  she  has  had  a  piece  for  two 
lessons  she  comes  to  the  third,  and  at  last  she  has 
managed  to  tone  down  enough,  and  then  she  plays  it 
splendidly.  She  is  a  savage  creature.  The  girls  tell 
me  that  one  time  she  sat  down  to  the  piano  (a  concert- 
grand)  with  such  violence  as  to  push  the  instrument 
to  one  side,  and  began  to  play  with  such  vehemence 
that  she  burst  the  sleeve  out  of  her  dress  behind ! 
She  is  going  to  be  an  artist,  and  I  told  her  she  must 
come  to  America  to  give  concerts.  She  said  '' Ja/' 
and  immediately  wanted  to  know  where  I  lived,  so  she 


RUBINSTEIN.  47 


could  come  and  see  me.  I  think  she  will  make  a  cap- 
ital concert  player,  for  she  is  always  excited  by  an 
audience,  and  she  has  immense  power.  I  am  a 
mere  baby  to  her  in  strength.  Perhaps  when  she  is 
ten  years  older  she  will  be  able  to  restrain  herself 
within  just  limits,  and  to  put  in  the  light  and  shade 
as  Fraulein  L.  does. 

Since  I  last  wrote  I  have  been  to  hear  Rubinstein 
again.  He  is  the  greatest  sensation  player  I  know  of, 
and,  like  Gottschalk,  has  all  sorts  of  tricks  of  his  own. 
His  grand  aim  is  to  produce  an  effect,  so  it  is  dread- 
fully exciting  to  hear  him,  and  at  his  last  concert  the 
first  piece  he  played — a  terrific  composition  by  Schu- 
bert— gave  me  such  a  violent  headache  that  I  couldn't 
hear  the  rest  of  the  performance  with  any  pleasure. 
He  has  a  gigantic  spirit  in  him,  and  is  extremely 
poetic  and  original,  but  for  an  entire  concert  he  is  too 
much.  Give  me  Rubinstein  for  a  few  pieces,  but 
Tausig  for  a  whole  evening.  Rubinstein  doesn't  care 
how  many  notes  he  misses,  provided  he  can  bring  out 
his  conception  and  make  it  vivid  enough.  Tausig 
strikes  every  note  with  rigid  exactness,  and  perhaps 
his  very  perfection  makes  him  at  times  a  little  cold. 
Rubinstein  played  Schubert's  Erl-Konig,  arranged  by 
Liszt,  gloriously.  Where  the  child  is  so  frightened, 
his  hands  flew  all  over  the  piano,  and  absolutely  made 
it  shriek  with  terror.  It  was  enough  to  freeze  you  to 
hear  it. 

Last  week  I  went  to  a  party  at  Mrs.  Bancroft's  in 
honour  of  Washington's  birth-day,  and  had  a  lovely 
time,  as  I  always  do  when  I  go  there.     Bismarck  was 


48  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

present,  and  wore  a  coat  all  decorated  with  stars  and 
orders.  He  is  a  splendid  looking  man,  and  is  tall 
and  imposing.  No  one  could  be  kinder  than  Mr. 
Bancroft.  He  and  Mrs.  Bancroft  live  in  a  beautiful 
house,  furnished  in  perfect  taste  and  full  of  lovely 
pictures  and  things,  and  they  entertain  most  charm- 
ingly. They  seem  to  do  their  utmost  for  the  Ameri- 
cans who  are  in  Berlin,  and  I  am  very  proud  of  our 
minister.  His  reputation  as  our  national  historian, 
together  with  his  German  culture  and  early  German 
associations,  all  combine  to  render  him  an  admirable 
representative  of  our  country  to  this  haughty  king- 
dom, and  I  hear  that  he  is  very  popular  with  its  self- 
satisfied  citizens.  As  for  Mrs.  Bancroft,  one  could 
hardly  be  more  elegant,  or  better  suited  to  the  posi- 
tion. Mr.  Bancroft  is  passionately  fond  of  music,  and 
knows  what  good  music  is, — which  is  of  course  an 
additional  title  to  my  high  opinion  ! 

The  other  day  Herr  J.  called  for  me  to  go  and  take 
a  walk  through  the  Thier-Garten,  and  see  the  skating. 
It  was  the  first  time  I  had  been  there,  though  it  is  not 
far  from  us,  and  I  was  delighted  with  it.  It  is  the 
natural  forest,  with  beautiful  walks  and  drives  cut 
through  it,  and  statues  here  and  there.  We  went  to 
see  the  skating,  and  it  was  a  lovely  sight.  The  band 
was  playing,  and  ladies  and  gentlemen  were  skating  in 
time  to  the  waltz.  Many  ladies  skate  very  elegantly, 
and  go  along  with  their  hands  in  their  muffs,  swaying 
first  to  one  side  and  then  to  the  other.  It  is  grace 
itself.  Carriages  and  horses  pranced  slowly  around 
the  edge  of  the  pond,  and  at  last  the  Prince  and  Prin- 


A  GERMAN  RADICAL.  49 

cess  Royal  came  along,  drawn  by  two  splendid  black 
horses. 

The  carriage  stopped  and  they  got  out  to  walk. 
"  Now,"  said  I  to  Herr  J.,  "  you  must  take  off  your 
hat " — for  everybody  takes  off  his  hat  to  the  Crown 
Prince.  As  they  passed  us  he  did  take  it  off,  but 
blushed  up  to  his  ears,  which  I  thought  rather  odd, 
until  he  said,  in  a  half -ashamed  tone,  "  That  is  the  first 
time  in  my  life  that  I  ever  took  off  my  hat  to  a  Prince." 
"  Well,  what  did  you  do  it  for?"  said  I.  " Because  you 
told  me  to,"  said  he.  He  is  such  a  red  hot  republi- 
can, that  even  such  a  little  act  of  respect  as  this  grated 
upon  him  !  I  only  told  him  in  fun,  any  way,  but  I  was 
very  much  amused  to  see  how  he  took  it.  He  always 
raves  over  the  United  States,  and  says  we  are  the 
greatest  country  in  the  world.  He  is  a  strange  man, 
and  you  ought  to  hear  his  theory  of  religion.  He  sets 
the  Bible  entirely  aside — like  most  German  cultivated 
men.  We  were  talking  of  it  one  night,  and  he  said, 
"  We  won't  speak  of  that  blockhead  Peter,  stupid  fish- 
erman that  he  was  !  but  we  will  pass  on  to  Paul,  who 
was  a  man  of  some  education."  David,  he  calls  "  that 
rascal  David,  etc."  Of  course,  I  hold  to  my  own  belief, 
but  I  can't  help  laughing  to  hear  him,  it  sounds  so  ridic- 
ulous. The  world  never  had  any  beginning,  he  says, 
and  there  is  no  resurrection.  We  live  only  for  the 
benefit  of  the  next  generation,  and  therefore  it  is  nec- 
essary to  lead  good  lives.  We  inherit  the  result  of 
our  father's  labours,  and  our  children  will  inherit  ours. 
So  we  shall  go  on  until  the  human  race  comes  to  a 
state  of  perfection.  "And  then  what?"  said  I.  Oh — 
4 


60  MUSIC-STUDY  IIST  GERMANY. 

then,  he  didn't  know.  Perhaps  the  world  would  ex- 
plode, and  go  oil  in  meteors.  ^^  We  do  know,"  said  he, 
"  that  there  are  lost  stars.  Occasionally  a  star  disap- 
pears and  we  can't  tell  what  has  become  of  it ;  and 
perhaps  the  earth  will  become  a  wandering  star,  or  a 
comet.  The  intervals  between  the  stars  are  so  great 
as  to  admit  of  a  world  wandering  about — and  there  is 
no  police  in  those  regions,  I  fancy,"  concluded  he,  with 
a  shrug  of  his  shoulders.  "  Do  you  really  believe  that, 
Herr  J.  ?"  I  asked.  "  Oh,"  said  he,  "  we  won't  speak 
about  beliefs.  Now  we  are  speculating  P^  He  is  a  delight- 
ful companion,  and  I  think  he  is  scrupulously  con- 
scientious. Though  he  does  not  profess  the  Christia» 
faith,  he  acts  up  to  Christian  principles. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Opera  and  Oratorio  in  Berlin.    A  Typical  American.    Prus. 
sian  Rudeness.    Conservatory  Changes.    Easter. 

Berlin,  March  20,  1870. 

On  Wednesday  the  Bancrofts  most  kindly  called  for  me 
to  go  to  the  opera  with  them.  They  came  in  their  car- 
riage, with  two  horses  and  footmen,  so  it  was  very  jolly, 
and  we  bowled  rapidly  through  Unter  den  Linden 
(the  Broadway  of  Berlin),  in  rather  a  different  manner 
from  the  pace  I  usually  crawl  along  in  a  droschkie.  They 
had  fine  opera  glasses,  of  course,  and  we  took  our  seats 
just  as  the  overture  was  about  to  begin,  so  that  eveiy- 
thing  was  charming  except  that  instead  of  Lohengrin, 
which  we  had  expected  to  hear,  they  had  changed  the 
opera  to  Faust,  which  I  had  heard  the  week  before. 
Faust  is,  however,  a  fascinating  opera,  and  it  is  beauti- 
fully given  here,  albeit  the  Germans  stick  to  it  that  it 
is  Gounod's  Faust  and  not  Goethe's. 

Since  I  have  come  here  I  have  a  perfect  passion  for 
going  to  the  opera,  for  everything  is  done  in  such  superb 
fashion,  and  they  have  the  orchestra  of  the  Symphony 
Kapelle,  which  is  so  splendid  that  it  could  not  be  better. 
It  is  a  pity  the  smgers  are  not  equally  good,  but  I  don't 
believe  Germany  is  the  land  of  great  voices.  However, 
the  men  sing  finely,  and  the  prima  donnas  have  much 
talent,  and  act  beautifully.  The  prima  donna  on  this 
occasion  was  Malhnger,  the  rival  of  Lucca.     She  is  espe- 

(51) 


52  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

cially  good  as  Margaretta.  Niemann  and  Wachtel  are 
the  great  men  singers.  Wachtel  was  formerly  a  coach- 
man, but  he  has  a  lovely  voice.  His  acting  is  not 
remarkable,  but  Niemann  is  superb,  and  he  sings  and 
acts  delightfully.  He  is  very  tall  and  fair,  with  light 
whiskers,  and  golden  hair  crowning  a  noble  head,  in  truth 
a  regular  Viking.  When  he  comes  out  in  his  crimson 
velvet  mantle  and  crimson  cap,  with  a  white  plume,  and 
begins  singing  these  delicious  love  songs  to  Margaretta, 
he  is  perfectly  enchanting !  He  and  Mallinger  throw 
tiiemselves  into  the  long  love  scene  which  fills  the  third 
act,  and  act  it  magnificently.  It  was  the  first  time  1 
ever  saw  a  love  scene  well  done.  The  fourth  act  is  most 
impressive.  The  curtain  rises,  and  sliows  the  interior  of 
a  church.  The  candles  are  burning  on  the  altar,  ani 
the  priests  and  acolytes  are  standing  in  their  proper  order 
before  it.  The  organ  strikes  up  a  fugue  and  all  the 
peasants  come  in  and  kneel  down.  Then  poor  Margar- 
etta comes  in  for  refuge,  but  when  she  kneels  to  pray 
a  voice  is  heard  which  tells  her  that  for  her  there  is 
no  refuge  or  hope  in  heaven  or  earth. 

This  scene  Mallinger  does  so  well  that  it  is  nature 
itself.  When  the  voice  is  heard  she  gives  a  shriek,  tot- 
ters for  a  moment,  and  then  falls  upon  the  floor  sense- 
less, and  0,  so  naturally  that  one  is  entirely  carried  away 
by  it.  The  organ  takes  up  the  fugue,  and  the  curtain 
drops.  The  contrast  between  the  two  acts  makes  it  all 
the  more  effective,  for  in  the  third  it  is  all  love  and 
flowers  and  languishing  music,  and  in  the  fourth  one  is 
suddenly  recalled  to  the  sanctity  and  severity  of  the 
church ;  also,  after  the  orchestra  this  subdued  fugue  on 


READING  GOETHE.  63 

the  organ  makes  a  very  peculiar  impression.  In  the  fifth 
act  Margaretta  is  in  prison,  and  Faust  and  Mephis- 
topheles  come  to  rescue  her.  This  is  a  powerful  scene, 
for  at  first  she  hesitates,  and  thinks  she  will  go  with 
them,  and  then  her  mind  wanders,  and  she  recalls,  as  in 
a  vision,  the  happy  scenes  of  earlier  days.  They  keep 
urging  her,  and  try  to  drag  her  along  with  them,  but  at 
last  she  breaks  free  from  them  and  cries,  "  To  Thee,  0, 
God,  belongs  my  soul,"  and  falls  upon  her  straw  pallet, 
and  dies.  Then  the  scene  changes,  and  you  see  four 
angels  gradually  floating  up  to  heaven,  supporting  her 
dead  body,  while  the  chorus  sings  : 

"  Christ  ist  erstanden 
Aus  Tod  und  Banden 
Frleden  und  Heil  verkeisst 
Aller  Welt  er,  die  ihn  preist."* 

This  ends  the  opera,  which  is  very  exciting  through- 
out. I  am  going  to  read  the  original  as  soon  as  I 
know  a  little  more  German,  so  that  I  shan't  have  to  read 
with  adictionaiy.  I  am  just  getting  able  to  read  Goethe 
without  one,  and  think  he  is  the  most  entrancing  writer. 
There  never  could  have  been  a  man  who  understood 
women  so  well  as  he !  His  female  characters  are  per- 
fectly captivating,  but  he  is  not  very  flattering  to  his  own 
sex,  and  generally  makes  them,  in  love,  (what  they  are) 
weak  and  vacillating. 

I  met  a  very  agreeable  young  countryman  at  a  dinner 
the  other  day — a  Mr.  P. — and  a  great  contrast  to  any  of 
Goethe's  ill-regulated  heroes.    He  was  the  typical  Amer- 

*Chriat  is  risen  ont  of  bond?  and  death.    He  promises  joy  and  blessing 
to  all  the  world,  which  for  this  glorifies  Him. 


54  MUSIC-STtTDY  IN  GERMANY. 

ican,  I  thought.  Wide  awake,  bright,  with  a  sharp  eye 
to  business,  very  repubhcan,  with  a  hearty  contempt  for 
titles  and  a  great  respect  for  women,  practical  and  clear- 
headed. When  the  wine  was  passed  round  he  refused 
it,  and  said  he  had  never  drunk  a  glass  of  wine  or 
touched  tobacco  in  his  life.  I  was  so  amused,  for  he 
looked  so  young.  I  said  to  myself,  "  probably  you  are 
just  out  of  college,  and  are  travelling  before  you  settle 
down  to  a  profession."  After  a  while  he  said  something 
about  his  wife.  I  was  a  little  surprised,  but  still  I 
thought  "perhaps  you  have  only  been  married  a  few 
months."  A  little  further  on  he  mentioned  his  children. 
I  was  still  more  surprised,  but  thought  he  couldn't  have 
more  than  two ;  but  when  Mrs.  B.  asked  him  how  many 
he  had,  and  he  said  "  three  living  and  two  dead,"  adding 
very  gravely,  "  I  have  been  twice  left  childless,"  I  could 
scarcely  help  bursting  out  laughing,  for  I  had  thought 
him  about  twenty-one,  and  these  revelations  of  a  wife 
and  numerous  family  seemed  too  preposterous ! — But  it 
was  very  nice  to  see  such  a  model  countryman,  too.  It 
is  such  men  that  make  the  American  greatness. 

After  dinner  I  went  with  my  hostess  to  hear  Men- 
delssohn's Oratorio  of  St.  Paul.  It  is  a  great  work,  a 
little  tedious  as  a  whole,  but  with  wonderfully  beautiful 
numbers  interspersed  through  it.  There  are  several 
lovely  chorales  in  it.  I  was  disappointed  in  the  perform- 
ance, though,  for  in  the  first  place  there  is  no  organ  in 
the  Sing-Akademie,  and  I  consider  the  effect  of  the 
organ  and  the  drums  indispensable  to  an  oratorio ;  and 
in  the  second,  the  solos  all  seemed  to  me  indifferently 
sung.     The  choruses  were  faultless,  however.      The^ 


BORSl^G'S  GREENHOUSE.  55 

understand  how  to  drill  a  chorus  here  !  Next  Friday  I 
am  going  to  Haydn's  "  Jahreszeiten,"  which  I  never  hap- 
pened to  hear  in  Boston. 

Germany  is  a  great  place  for  birds  and  flowers.  All 
winter  long  we  have  quantities  of  saucy-looking  little 
sparrows  here,  and  they  have  the  most  thievish  expres- 
sion when  they  fly  down  for  a  crumb.  I  sometimes 
put  crumbs  on  my  window-sill,  and  in  a  short  time 
they  are  sure  to  see  them.  Then  they  stand  on  the 
edge  of  a  roof  opposite,  and  look  from  side  to  side  for 
a  long  time,  the  way  birds  do.  At  last  they  make  up 
their  minds,  swoop  down  on  the  sill,  stretch  their 
heads,  give  a  bold  look  to  see  if  I  am  about,  and 
then  snatch  a  crumb  and  fly  off  with  it.  They  never 
can  get  over  their  own  temerity,  and  always  give  a 
chirp  as  they  fly  away  with  the  crumb ;  whether  it  is 
a  note  of  triumph  over  their  success,  or  an  expression 
of  nervousness,  I  cannot  decide.  One  cold  day  I 
passed  a  tree,  on  every  twig  of  which  was  a  bird.  They 
were  holding  a  political  meeting,  I  am  sure,  for  they 
were  all  jabbering  away  to  each  other  in  the  most 
excited  manner,  and  each  one  had  his  breast  bulged 
out,  and  his  feathers  ruffled.  They  were  "  awfully 
cunning  I" 

On  Tuesday  I  went  out  to  Borsig's  greenhouse.  He 
is  an  immensely  rich  man  here,  who  makes  a  specialty 
of  flowers.  He  lives  some  way  out  of  Berlin,  and  has 
the  largest  conservatories  here.  The  inside  of  the 
portico  which  leads  into  them  is  all  covered  with  ivy, 
which  creeps  up  on  the  inside  of  the  walls,  and  covers 
them  completely.     When  we  came  within,  the  flowers 


56  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

were  arranged  in  perfect  hanks  all  along  the  length  of 
the  greenhouse,  so  that  you  saw  one  continuous  line 
of  brilliant  colours,  and  oh — the  perfume  !  The  hya- 
cinths predominated  in  all  shades,  though  there  were 
many  other  flowers,  and  many  of  them  new  to  me. 
Camelias  were  trained,  vine  fashion,  all  over  the 
sides  of  the  greenhouse,  and  hundreds  of  white  and 
pink  blossoms  were  depending  from  them.  All  the 
centre  of  the  greenhouse  was  a  bed  of  rich  earth  cov- 
ered with  a  little  delicate  plant,  and  at  intervals 
planted  with  azalea  bushes  so  covered  with  blossoms 
that  one  could  scarcely  see  the  leaves.  At  one  end 
was  a  very  large  cage  filled  with  brilliant  birds,  and 
at  the  other  was  a  lovely  fountain  of  white  marble — 
Venus  and  Cupid  supported  on  three  shells.  But  I 
was  most  struck  by  the  tree  ferns,  which  I  had  never 
before  seen.  They  were  perfectly  magnificent,  and 
were  arranged  on  the  highest  side  of  the  greenhouse 
with  many  other  rare  plants  most  artistically  mingled 
in.  After  we  had  finished  looking  at  the  flowers  we 
went  into  a  second  house,  where  were  palm  trees,  ferns, 
cacti  and  all  sorts  of  strange  things  growing,  but  all 
placed  with  the  same  taste.  It  was  a  beautiful  sight, 
and  I  never  had  any  idea  of  the  garden  of  Eden  be- 
fore. I  must  try  and  bring  home  a  pot  of  the  "  Violet 
of  the  Alps."  It  is  the  most  delicate  little  flower,  and 
looks  as  if  it  grew  on  a  high,  cold  mountain. 


HAYDN'S  JAHRE8ZEITEN.  57 

Berlin,  April  1, 1870. 

To-day  is  April  Fool's  day,  and  the  first  real  month  of 
spring  is  begun.  I  have  not  fooled  anybody  yet,  but  as 
soon  as  dinner  is  ready,  I  shall  rush  to  the  window  and 
cry,  "There  goes  the  king!"  Of  course  they  will 
all  run  to  see  him,  and  then  I  shall  get  it  off  on  the 
whole  family  at  once.  I  shall  wait  until  the  "  kleiner 
Hans,"  Frau  W.'s  son,  comes  home.  I  call  him  the 
"  Kleinen  "  in  derision,  for  in  reahty  he  is  immense.  I 
have  been  very  much  struck  with  the  height  of  the  peo- 
ple here.  As  a  rule  they  are  much  taller  than  Amer- 
icans, and  sometimes  one  meets  perfect  giants  in  the 
streets.  The  Prussian  men  are  often  semi-insolent 
ill  their  street  manners  to  women,  and  sometimes  nearly 
knock  you  off  the  sidewalk,  from  simply  not  choosing  to 
see  you.  I  suppose  this  arrogance  is  one  of  the  benefits 
of  their  military  training !  They  uHl  have  the  middle 
of  the  walk  where  the  stone  flag  is  laid,  no  matter  what 
you  have  to  step  off  into ! 

I  went  to  hear  Haydn's  Jahreszeiten  a  few  evenings 
since,  and  it  is  the  most  charming  work — such  a  happy 
combination  of  grave  and  gay !  He  wrote  it  when  he 
was  seventy  years  old,  and  it  is  so  popular  that  one  has 
great  difficulty  in  getting  a  ticket  for  it.  The  salon  was 
entirely  filled,  so  that  I  had  to  take  a  seat  in  the  loge, 
where  the  places  are  pretty  poor,  though  I  went  eai'ly, 
too.  The  work  is  sung  like  an  oratorio,  in  arias,  recita- 
tives and  choruses,  and  is  interspersed  with  charming 
little  songs.  It  represents  the  four  seasons  of  the  year, 
and  each  part  is  prefaced  by  a  little  overture  appropriate 


58  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

to  the  passing  of  each  season  into  the  next.  The  reci- 
tatives are  sung  by  Hanna  and  Lucas,  who  are  lovers, 
and  by  Simon,  who  is  a  friend  of  both,  apparently. 
The  autumn  is  the  prettiest  of  the  four  parts,  for  it 
represents  first  the  joy  of  the  country  people  over  the 
harvests  and  over  the  fruits.  Then  comes  a  splendid 
chorus  in  praise  of  Industry.  After  that  follows  a  little 
love  dialogue  between  Hanna  and  Lucas,  then  a  descrip- 
tion of  a  hunt,  then  a  dance ;  lastly  the  wine  is  brought, 
and  the  whole  ends  with  a  magnificent  chorus  in  praise 
of  wine.  The  dance  is  too  pretty  for  anything,  for  the 
whole  chorus  sings  a  waltz,  and  it  is  the  gayest,  most 
captivating  composition  imaginable.  The  choruses  here 
are  so  splendidly  drilled  that  they  give  the  expression  in 
a  very  vivid  manner,  and  produce  beautiful  effects.  All 
the  parts  are  perfectly  accurate  and  well  balanced.  But 
the  solo  singers  are,  as  I  have  remarked  in  former  letters, 
for  the  most  part,  ordinary. 

I  took  my  last  lesson  of  Ehlert  yesterday.  I  am  veiy 
sorry  that  he  and  Tausig  have  quarrelled,  for  he  is  a 
splendid  teacher.  He  has  taught  me  a  great  deal,  and 
precisely  the  things  that  I  wanted  to  know  and  could  not 
find  out  for  myself.  For  instance,  those  twists  and  tur?as 
of  the  hands  that  artists  have,  their  way  of  striking  t)ie 
chords,  and  many  other  little  technicalities  which  one 
must  have  a  master  to  learn.  He  always  seemed  to  take 
great  pleasure  in  teaching  me,  and  I  am  most  grateful  to 
him  for  his  encouragement.  I  think  Tausig  behaves 
very  strangely  to  be  off  for  such  a  long  time.  He  does 
not  return  until  the  first  of  May,  and  all  this  month  we 
are  to  be  taught  by  one  of  his  best  scholars  until  he 


THE  "  PASSION  "  MUSIC.  59 

comes  back  and  engages  another  teacher.  He  has  just 
given  concerts  at  St.  Petersburg,  and  I  am  told  that  at 
a  single  one  he  made  six  thousand  rubles.  They  are  in 
an  immense  enthusiasm  there  over  him. 

Last  night  I  went  with  Mr.  B.  to  hear  Bach's  Passion 
Music.  Anything  to  equal  that  last  chorus  I  never  heard 
from  voices.  I  felt  as  if  it  ought  to  go  on  forever,  and 
could  not  bear  to  have  it  end.  That  chorale,  "0  Sacred 
Head  now  wounded,"  is  taken  from  it,  and  it  comes  in 
twice;  the  second  time  with  different  harmonies  and 
without  accompaniment.  It  is  the  most  exquisite  thing ; 
you  feel  as  if  you  would  like  to  die  when  you  hear  it. 
But  the  last  chorus  carries  you  straight  up  to  heaven.  It 
begins : 

"  We  sit  down  in  tears 
And  call  to  thee  in  the  grave, 
Rest  soft— rest  soft." 

It  represents  the  rest  of  our  Saviour  after  the  stone 
had  been  rolled  before  the  tomb,  and  it  is  divine.  Every- 
body in  the  chorus  was  dressed  in  black,  and  almost 
every  one  in  the  audience,  so  you  can  imagine  what  a 
sombre  scene  it  was.  This  is  the  custom  here,  and  on 
Good  Friday,  when  the  celebrated  "Tod  Jesu"  by 
Graun,  is  perf  ormed,they  go  in  black  without  exception. 


Berlin,  April  24,  1870. 
I  thought  of  you  all  on  Easter  Sunday,  and  won- 
dered what  sort  of  music  you  were  having.     I  did  not 
go  to  the  English  church,  as  is  my  wont,  but  to  the 


60  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

Dom,  which  is  the  great  church  here,  and  is  where 
all  the  court  goes.  It  is  an  extremely  ugly  church, 
and  much  like  one  of  our  old  Congregational  meeting- 
houses ;  but  they  have  a  superb  choir  of  two  hundred 
men  and  boys  which  is  celebrated  all  over  Europe. 
Haupt  (Mr.  J.  K.  Paine's  former  master)  Js  the  organ- 
ist, and  of  course  they  have  a  very  large  organ.  I 
knew,  as  this  was  Easter,  that  the  music  would  be 
magnificent,  so  I  made  A.  "W.  go  there  with  me,  much 
against  her  will,  for  she  declared  we  should  get  no 
seat.  The  Germans  don't  trouble  themselves  to  go  to 
church  very  often,  but  on  a  feast  day  they  turn  out 
in  crowds. 

We  got  to  the  church  only  twenty  minutes  before 
service  began,  and  I  confess  I  was  rather  daunted  as  I 
saw  the  swarms  of  people  not  only  going  in  but  coming 
out,  hopeless  of  getting  into  the  church.  However,  I 
determined  to  push  on  and  see  what  the  chances  were, 
and  with  great  difficulty  we  got  up  stairs.  There  is  a 
lobby  that  runs  all  around  the  church,  just  as  in  the 
Boston  Music  Hall.  All  the  doors  between  the  gal- 
lery and  the  lobby  were  open,  and  each  was  crammed 
full  of  people.  I  thought  the  best  thing  we  could  do 
would  be  to  stand  there  until  we  got  tired,  and  listen 
to  the  music,  and  then  go.  Finally,  the  sexton  came 
along,  and  A.  asked  him  if  he  could  not  give  us  two 
seats ;  he  shrugged  his  shoulders  and  said,  "Yes,  if  you 
choose  to  pass  through  the  crowd."  We  boldly  said 
we  would,  although  it  looked  almost  hopeless,  and 
then  made  our  way  through  it,  followed  by  muttered 
execrations.    At  last   the   sexton  unlocked  a  door, 


THE  "DOM  CHOIR."  61 

and  gave  us  two  excellent  seats,  and  there  was  plenty 
of  room  for  a  dozen  more  people  ;  but  I  don't  doubt 
he  frightened  them  away  just  as  he  would  have  done 
us  if  he  could.  He  locked  us  in,  and  there  we  sat 
quite  in  comfort. 

At  ten  the  choir  began  to  sing  a  psalm.  They 
sit  directly  over  the  chancel,  and  a  gilded  frame  work 
conceals  them  completely  from  the  congregation. 
They  have  a  leader  who  conducts  them,  and  they  sing 
in  most  perfect  time  and  tune,  entirely  without  accom- 
paniment. The  voices  are  tender  and  soft  rather 
than  loud,  and  they  weave  in  and  out  most  beautifully. 
There  are  a  great  many  different  parts,  and  the  voices 
keep  striking  in  from  various  points,  which  produces 
a  delicious  effect,  and  makes  them  sound  like  an  angel 
choir  far  up  in  the  sky.  After  they  had  finished  the 
psalm  the  organ  burst  out  with  a  tremendous  great 
chord,  enough  to  make  you  jump,  and  then  played  a 
chorale,  and  there  were  also  trombones  which  took  the 
melody.  Then  all  the  congregation  sang  the  chorale, 
and  the  choir  kept  silence.  You  cannot  imagine  how 
easy  it  is  to  sing  when  the  trombones  lead,  and  the 
effect  is  overwhelming  with  the  organ,  especially  in 
these  grand  old  chorales.  I  could  scarcely  bear  it,  it 
was  so  very  exciting. 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  music,  as  it  was  Easter 
Sunday,  and  it  was  done  alternately  by  the  choir  and 
the  congregation ;  but  generally  the  Dom  choir  only 
sings  one  psalm  before  the  service  begins,  and  there- 
fore I  seldom  take  the  trouble  to  go  there.  The  rest 
of  the  music  is  entirely  congregational,  and  they  only 


62  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

have  trombones  on  great  occasions.  We  sat  close  by 
the  chancel,  and  the  great  wax  candles  flared  on  the 
altar  below  us,  and  the  Lutheran  clergyman  read  the 
German  so  that  it  sounded  a  good  deal  like  Latin.  I 
was  quite  surprised  to  see  how  much  like  Latin  Ger- 
man could  sound,  for  it  has  these  long,  rolling  words, 
and  it  is  just  as  pompous.  Altogether  it  made  a 
strange  but  splendid  impression.  I  thought  if  they 
had  only  had  their  choir  in  the  chancel,  and  in  white 
surplices,  it  would  have  been  much  more  beautiful, 
but  perhaps  the  music  would  not  have  sounded  so  fine 
as  when  the  singers  were  overhead.  The  Berlin 
churches  all  look  as  if  religion  was  dying  out  here,  so 
old  and  bare  and  ill-cared  for,  and  so  few  in  number. 
They  are  only  redeemed  by  the  great  castles  of  organs 
which  they  generally  have  ;  and  it  is  a  difficult  thing 
to  get  the  post  of  organist  here.  One  must  be  an 
experienced  and  well-known  musician  to  do  it.  They 
sing  no  chants  in  the  service,  but  only  chorales. 

To-night  is  the  last  Eoyal  Symphony  Concert  of  this 
season,  and  of  course  I  shall  go.  This  wonderful  or- 
chestra carries  me  completely  away.  It  is  too  mar- 
vellous how  they  play !  such  expression,  such  dan!  I 
heard  them  give  Beethoven's  Leonora  Overture  last 
week  in  such  a  fashion  as  fairly  electrified  me.  This 
overture  sums  up  the  opera  of  Fidelio,  and  in  one  part 
of  it,  just  as  the  hero  is  going  to  be  executed,  you  hear 
the  post-horn  sound  which  announces  his  delivery. 
This  they  play  so  softly  that  you  catch  it  exactly  as  if 
it  came  from  a  long  distance,  and  you  cannot  believe 


BERINGER.  65 


it  comes  from  the  orchestra.     It  makes  you  think  of 
"the  horns  of  elf -land  faintly  blowing." 

Tausig  is  expected  back  this  week,  and  he  has  in- 
deed been  gone  long  enough.  He  is  going  to  give  a 
lesson  every  Monday  to  the  best  scholars  who  are  not 
in  his  class,  and  as  I  stand  at  the  head  of  these  I  hope 
to  have  a  lesson  from  him  every  week.  This  would 
suit  me  better  than  two,  as  he  is  so  dreadfully  exact- 
ing, and  it  will  give  me  time  to  learn  a  piece  well. 
Then  I  should  have  my  regular  lesson  beside  from  Mr. 
Beringer,  or  whoever  he  appoints  to  take  Ehlert's  place. 
Beringer,  who  is  a  young  man  about  twenty -five  years 
old,  has  turned  out  a  capital  teacher,  and  I  am 
learning  much  with  him.  He  plays  beautifully 
himself,  and  is  a  great  favorite  of  T^usig's.  He  has 
been  with  him  so  long  that  he  teaches  his  method  ex- 
cellently, and  gives  me  pieces  that  he  has  studied  with 
him.  I  believe  he  is  to  come  out  at  the  Gewandhaus, 
in  Leipsic,  in  October,  and  after  that  he  will  settle  in 
London. 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  Thier-Garten.       A  Military    Review.    Charlottenburg. 
Tausig.    Berlin  in  Summer.    Potsdam  and  Babelsberg. 

Berlin,  June  5, 1870. 

We've  had  the  vilest  possible  weather  this  spring,  but 
Berlin  looks  perfectly  lovely  now.  There  are  a  great 
many  gardens  attached  to  the  houses  here.  Every- 
thing is  in  bloom,  and  is  laden  with  the  scent  of  lilacs 
and  apple  blossoms.  The  streets  are  planted  with  lin- 
dens and  horse  chestnut  trees,  and  on  the  fashionable 
street  bordering  on  the  Thier-Garten,  all  the  houses 
have  little  lawns  in  front,  carpeted  with  the  most  daz- 
zling green  grass,  and  rising  out  of  it  are  solid  banlcs 
of  flowers.  The  shrubs  are  planted  according  to  their 
height,  close  together,  and  one  behind  the  other,  and 
as  they  are  all  in  blossom  you  see  these  great  masses  of 
colour.  It  is  like  a  gigantic  bouquet  growing  up  be- 
fore you. 

The  Thier-Garten  is  perfectly  beautiful.  It  is  so 
charming  to  come  upon  this  unfenced  wood  right  in 
the  heart  of  an  immense  city,  with  roads  and  paths 
cut  all  through  it,  and  each  over-arched  with  vivid 
green  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach.  When  you  see  the 
gay  equipages  driving  swiftly  through  it,  and  ladies 
and  gentlemen  glancing  amid  the  trees  on  horseback, 
it  is  very  romantic. 

Frau  W.'s  brother,  "Uncle  S."  as  I  call  him, 
(64) 


CHARLOTTENBURG.  65 

announced  the  other  day  that  he  was  going  to 
take  lis  to  Charlottenburg.  I  had  often  been  told  that 
I  must  go  there  and  see  the  "  Mausoleum,"  but  as  you 
know  I  never  ask  for  explanations,  this  did  not  coi,  \ey 
any  particular  idea  to  my  mind,  and  I  started  out  jn. 
this  excursion  in  my  usual  state  of  blissful  ignor- 
ance.  We  took  two  droschkies  for  our  party,  and 
meandered  slowly  through  the  Thier-Garten  and  along 
the  Charlottenburg  road  till  we  arrived  at  our  point  of 
destination.  This  was  announced  from  afar  by  an 
absurd  statue  poised  on  one  toe  on  the  top  of  the 
castle  which  stands  in  front  of  the  park  containing 
the  Mausoleum. 

The  first  thing  we  did  on  alighting  was  to  go  into  a 
little  beer  garden  close  by  to  take  coffee.  It  was  a  per- 
fect afternoon,  and  the  trees  and  flowers  were  in  all 
their  June  glory.  We  sat  down  around  one  of  those 
delightful  tables  which  they  always  have  under  the 
trees  in  Germany.  The  coffee  was  soon  served,  hot 
and  strong,  and  Uncle  S.  took  out  a  cigar  to  complete 
his  enjoyment.  Then  we  began  to  stroll.  We  went 
through  a  gate  into  the  grounds  surrounding  the  castle, 
and  after  passing  through  the  orangery  emerged  into 
a  garden,  which  soon  spread  into  a  beautiful  park 
filled  with  magnificent  trees,  and  with  beds  of  flowers 
cut  in  the  smooth  turf  for  some  distance  along  the 
borders  of  the  avenues.  We  turned  to  the  right  (in- 
stead of  to  the  left,  which  would  have  brought  us  di- 
rectly to  the  Mausoleum)  in  order  to  see  the  flowers 
first,  then  the  river,  and  then  come  round  by  the  pood 
where  the  carp  are  kept. 
5 


66  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

The  Germans  certainly  understand  laying  out  parks 
to  perfection.  They  are  not  too  rigidly  kept,  and  there 
is  an  air  of  nature  about  everything.  This  Charlot- 
tenburg  park  is  a  particularly  fascinating  one.  A  dense 
avenue  borders  the  River  Spree,  which  is  broad  at  this 
point,  and  flows  gloomily  and  silently  along.  The 
branches  of  the  trees  overhang  the  stream,  and  also 
lock  together  across  the  walk,  forming  a  leafy  avenue 
before  and  behind  you.  "We  met  very  few  people, 
scarcely  any  one,  in  fact,  and  the  songs  of  the  birds 
were  the  only  sounds  that  broke  the  all-pervading 
calm.  The  path  finally  left  the  river,  and  we  came 
out  on  an  open  spot,  where  was  a  pretty  view  of  the 
castle  through  a  little  cut  in  the  trees.  We  sat  down 
on  a  bench  and  looked  about  us  for  awhile,  and  then 
went  up  on  the  bridge  which  crosses  the  pond  where 
the  carp  are  kept.  The  Germans  always  feed  these 
carp  religiously,  and  that  is  a  regular  part  of  the  ex- 
cursion. The  fish  are  very  old,  many  of  them,  and  we 
saw  some  hoary  old  fellows  rise  lazily  to  the  surface 
and  condescend  to  swallow  the  morsels  of  cake  that 
we  threw  them.  They  were  evidently  accustomed  to 
good  living,  and,  like  all  swells,  considered  it  only  their 
due! 

At  last  we  came  gradually  round  towards  the  Mau- 
soleum. An  avenue  of  hemlocks  led  to  it — "  Trauer- 
Baume  (mourning-trees),"  as  the  Germans  call  them, 
and  it  was  an  exquisite  touch  of  sentiment  to  make 
this  avenue  of  these  dark  funereal  evergreens.  At  first 
you  see  nothing,  for  the  avenue  is  long,  and  you  turn 
into  it  gay  and  smiling  with  the  influence  of  the  birds, 


THE  "  LEGENDED  TOMB."  67 

the  trees,  and  the  flowers  fresh  upon  you.  But  the 
drooping  boughs  of  the  sombre  hemlocks  soon  begin 
to  take  effect,  and  the  feeling  that  comes  over  one 
when  about  half  way  down  it  is  certainly  peculiar.  It 
seems  as  if  one  were  passing  between  a  row  of  tall  and 
silent  sentinels  watching  over  the  abode  of  death  ! 

Involuntarily  you  begin  repeating  from  Edgar  Poe's 
haunting  poem : 

"  Then  I  pacified  Psyche  and  kissed  her, 
And  conquered  her  scruples  and  gloom, 
And  banished  her  scruples  and  gloom, 
And  we  passed  to  the  end  of  the  vista 
Till  we  came  to  the  door  of  a  tomb ; 
And  I  said,  ♦  What  is  written,  sweet  sister. 
On  the  door  of  this  legended  tomb  ?' 
And  she  said,  •  Ulalume,  Ulalume, 
'Tis  the  vault  of  thy  lost  Ulalume." 

And  so,  too,  does  your  eye  become  fixed  upon  a  door 
at  the  end  of  this  vista,  which  comes  nearer  and  nearer 
until  finally  the  Mausoleum  takes  form  round  it  in 
the  shape  of  a  little  Greek  temple  of  polished  brown 
marble.  A  small  flower  garden  lies  in  front  of  it,  and 
it  would  look  inviting  enough  if  one  did  not  know 
what  it  was.  Two  officials  stand  ready  to  receive  you 
and  conduct  you  up  the  steps. 

Within  these  walls  a  royal  pair  lie  buried — King 
Friedrich  Wilhelm  III.  and  his  beautiful  wife,  Luisa, 
who  so  calmly  withstood  the  bullying  of  Napoleon  I. 
and  for  whom  the  Prussians  cherish  such  a  chivalrous 
affection.  They  are  entombed  under  the  front  portion 
of  the  temple,  and  two  slabs  in  the  pavement  mark 
their  resting  places.     These  are  lit  from  above  by  a 


68  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

window  in  the  roof  filled  with  blue  glass,  which 
throws  a  subdued  and  solemn  light  into  the  marble 
chamber.  You  walk  past  them  to  the  other  end  of 
the  temple,  which  is  cruciform  in  shape,  go  up  one 
step  between  pillars,  and  there,  in  the  little  white 
transept,  lie  upon  two  snowy  marble  couches  the  sculp- 
tured forms  of  the  dead  king  and  queen  side  by  side. 
Though  this  apartment  is  lit  by  side  windows  of  plain 
glass  high  up  on  the  walls,  so  that  it  is  full  of  the 
white  daylight,  yet  the  blueish  light  from  the  outer 
room  is  reflected  into  it  just  enough  to  heighten  the 
delicacy  of  the  marble  and  to  bestow  on  everything 
an  unearthly  aspect. 

Queen  Luisa  was  celebrated  for  her  beauty,  and 
the  sculptor  Ranch,  who  knew  and  adored  her,  has 
breathed  it  all  into  the  stone.  There  she  lay,  as  if 
asleep,  her  head  easily  pressing  the  pillow,  her  feet 
crossed  and  the  outlines  of  her  exquisite  form  veiled 
but  not  concealed  by  the  thin  tissue-like  drapery.  ]t 
covered  even  the  little  feet,  but  they  seemed  to  defii  e 
themselves  all  the  more  daintily  through  the  musli'i. 
There  is  no  look  of  death  about  her  face.  She  seems 
more  like  a  bonny  "  Queen  o'  the  May,"  reclining  with 
closed  eyes  upon  her  flowery  bed.  The  statue  has  been 
criticised  by  some  on  account  of  this  entire  absence  of 
the  "  heaute  de  la  mortr  There  is  no  transfigured  or 
glorified  look  to  it.  It  is  simply  that  of  a  beautiful 
woman  in  deep  repose.  But  it  seems  to  me  that 
this  is  a  matter  of  taste,  and  that  the  artist  had  a  per- 
fect right  to  represent  her  as  he  most  felt  she  was. 
The  king's  statue  is  clothed  in  full  uniform,  and  he 


THE  MEMORIAL  STATUES.  69 

looks  very  striking,  too,  lying  there  in  all  the  dignity 
of  manhood  and  of  kingship,  with  the  drapery  of  his 
militaiy  cloak  falling  about  him.  His  features  are 
delicate  and  regular,  and  he  is  a  fit  countei*part  to  his 
lovely  consort.  Against  the  back  wall  an  altar  is 
elevated  on  some  steps,  and  there  is  an  endless  fasci- 
nation in  leaning  against  it  and  gazing  down  on  those 
two  august  forms  stretched  out  so  still  before  you. 
On  either  side  of  the  statues  are  magnificent  tall 
candelabra  of  white  marble  of  very  rich  and  beauti- 
ful design,  and  appropriate  inscriptions  from  the 
German  Bible  run  round  the  carved  and  diapered 
marble  walls.  Altogether,  this  garden-park,  with  its 
river,  its  Mausoleum,  its  avenue  of  hemlocks,  and  its 
glorious  statues  of  the  king  and  queen,  is  one  of  the 
most  exquisite  and  ideal  conceptions  imaginable.  As 
we  returned  it  was  toward  sunset.  The  evening  wind 
was  sighing  through  the  tall  trees  and  the  waving 
grasses.  An  indefinable  influence  hovered  in  the  air^ 
The  supernatural  seemed  to  envelop  us,  and  instinct- 
ively we  hastened  a  little  as  we  retraced  our  steps. 

When  we  emerged  from  the  hemlock  avenue  Uncle 
S.,  I  thought,  seemed  rather  relieved,  for  the  contem- 
plation of  a  future  life  is  not  particularly  sympathetic 
to  him  !  After  he  had  asked  me  if  I  did  not  think  the 
Mausoleum  "  sehr  schon  (very  beautiful),"  and  had 
ascertained  that  I  did  think  so,  he  restored  his  equilib- 
rium by  taking  out  another  cigar,  which  he  lighted, 
and  we  leisurely  made  our  way  through  the  garden  to 
our  droschkies  and  drove  home.  It  was  quite  dark  as 
we  were   coming  through  the  Thier  Garten,  and  it 


70  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

seemed  like  a  forest.  The  stars  were  shining  through 
the  branches  overhead,  and  their  soothing  light  gave 
the  last  poetic  touch  to  a  lovely  day. 


Berlin,  June  26, 1870. 

Last  week  the  Emperor  of  Austria  was  here,  and 
they  had  a  parade  in  his  honour.  The  B.'s  took  me 
in  their  carriage  to  see  it.  We  drove  to  a  large  plain 
outside  the  city,  and  there  we  saw  a  mock  battle,  and 
all  the  manoeuvers  of  an  army — how  they  advance 
and  retreat,  and  how  they  form  and  deploy.  There 
was  a  continual  fire  of  musketry  and  artillery,  and  it  was 
very  exciting.  The  enemy  was  only  imaginary,  but 
the  attacking  party  acted  just  as  if  there  were  one, 
and  at  last  it  ended  with  the  taking  by  storm,  whi(;h 
was  done  by  the  attacking  party  rushing  on  with  ojie 
continued  cheer,  or  rather  yell,  from  one  end  of  the 
lines  to  the  other.  Then  they  all  broke  up,  the  bands 
played  the  Eussian  Hymn,  the  King  and  the  Emperor 
mounted  horses  and  led  off  a  great  body  of  cavalry, 
and  away  we  all  clattered  home — carriages  and  horses 
all  together.  It  was  a  great  sight,  and  I  enjoyed  it 
very  much. 

I  am  going  to  play  before  Tausig  next  Monday,  and 
have  been  studying  very  hard.  He  praised  me  very 
much  the  last  time,  and  said  he  would  soon  take  me 
into  his  regular  class ;  but  he  is  such  a  whimsical 
creature  that  one  can't  rely  on  him  much.  Two  of 
the  girls  have  almost  finished  their  studies  with  him, 
and  soon  are  going  to  give  concerts.      I  am  playing 


BERLIN  IN  SUMMER.  71 

Scarlatti,  which  he  is  awfully  particular  with,  and 
expect  to  have  my  head  taken  off.  Two  of  his  scholars 
are  playing  the  same  pieces  that  I  am,  and  he  told  one 
of  them  that  she  played  "  like  a  nut-cracker."  He  is 
very  funny  sometimes.  The  other  day  one  of  the 
young  men  played  the  Pastoral  Sonata  to  him.  Tau- 
sig  gave  a  sigh,  and  said,  "  This  should  be  a  garden 
of  roses,  but,  as  you  play  it,  I  see  only  potato  plants." 
Scarlatti  is  charming  music.  He  writes  en  suite  like 
Bach,  and  is  still  more  quaint  and  full  of  humour. 

I  find  Berlin  very  pleasant,  even  in  summer.  Most 
of  the  better  houses  are  made  with  balconies  or  bow 
windows,  and  around  each  one  they  will  have  a  little 
frame  full  of  earth  in  which  is  planted  mignonette, 
nasturtiums,  geraniums,  etc.,  which  trail  over  the  edge, 
and  as  you  look  up  from  the  street  it  seems  as  if  the 
houses  were  festooned  with  flowers.  On  many  of  them 
woodbine  is  trained  so  that  every  window  is  set  in  a 
deep  green  frame.  All  the  nice  streets  have  pretty 
little  front  yards  in  which  roses  are  planted,  and  I 
never  saw  anything  like  them.  The  branches  are  cut 
to  one  thick,  straight  stem,  which  is  tied  to  a  stick. 
They  grow  very  tall,  and  each  one  is  crowned  with  a 
top-knot  of  superb  roses.  Every  yard  looks  like  a  lit- 
tle orchard  of  roses,  and  they  are  of  every  imaginable 
shade  of  colour.  Every  American  who  comes  here 
must  be  struck  with  the  want  of  beauty  in  the  cities 
he  has  left  at  home ;  and  it  is  really  shameful,  that 
when  our  people  are  so  much  better  off,  and  when 
such  immense  numbers  of  them  see  this  European 
culture  every  year,  still  they  do  not  introduce  the  same 


72  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

tilings  into  our  country.  Take  Fifth  Avenue  or  Beacon 
Street,  for  example,  and  one  won't  see  anything  the 
whole  length  of  them  but  a  little  green  grass  and  an 
occasional  woodbine,  whereas  here  they  would  be 
adorned  with  flowers  and  all  sorts  of  contrivances  to 
make  them  beautiful. 

On  Thursday  a  little  party  of  three,  including  my- 
self, was  made  up  to  take  me  out  to  Potsdam.  The 
Museum,  Oharlottenburg  and  Potsdam,  are,  as  Mr.  T. 
B.  says,  "  the  three  sights  of  Berlin."  I  have  written 
you  of  the  first  two,  and  you  shall  now  have  the  third. 
Potsdam  is  sixteen  miles  from  here,  and  it  took  about 
as  long  to  go  there  by  train  as  it  does  from  Boston  to 
Lynn.  It  is  the  royal  summer  residence.  On  arriv- 
ing we  bought  a  large  quantity  of  cherries  and 
then  seated  ourselves  in  a  carriage  to  drive  through 
the  city  to  Charlottenhof.  Here  we  got  out  and 
walked  into  a  superb  park,  filled  with  splendid  old 
trees.  The  first  thing  we  saw  was  a  beautiful  little 
building  in  the  Pompeian  style.  This  was  where 
Humboldt  used  to  stay  with  the  last  king  and  queen 
in  summer.  We  went  into  it  and  found  it  the  sweet- 
est little  place  you  can  imagine.  When  we  opened 
the  door,  instead  of  a  hall  was  a  little  court  with  a 
fountain  in  it  and  two  low,  broad  staircases  (of 
marble,  I  think)  sweeping  up  to  the  main  story.  The 
walls  were  delicately  tinted  and  frescoed  all  round  the 
borders  with  Pompeian  devices.  The  windows  were 
of  some  sort  of  thin  transparent  stained  glass,  through 
which  the  light  could  penetrate  easily,  and  were  also  in 
the  Pompeian  fashion,  with  chariots,  and  horses,  and 


A  MINIATURE  PALACE.  73 

goddesses,  etc.  The  rooms  all  opened  into  each  other, 
but  we  were  obliged  to  go  through  them  so  hastily 
that  I  could  not  look  at  them  much  in  detail.  The 
walls  were  covered  with  lovely  pictures,  and  there  were 
tables  inlaid  with  precious  marbles  and  all  sorts  o^ 
beautiful  things.  We  saw  the  table  and  chair  where  the 
king  always  sat,  just  as  he  had  left  it,  with  his  papers 
and  drawings;  and  the  queen's  boudoir,  with  her 
writing  materials  and  her  sewing  arrangements.  From 
her  window  one  looked  out  on  a  fountain  at  the  right, 
and  on  the  left  was  a  long  arcade  covered  with  vines 
which  led  to  a  garden  of  roses. 

We  opened  a  door  and  passed  through  this  arcade, 
and,  after  looking  at  the  flowers,  went  on  through  the 
park  until  we  came  to  another  house,  which  was  Pom- 
peian,  also,  or  Greek,  I  couldn't  exactly  tell  which. 
It  was  built  only  to  bathe  in.  The  floors  were  all  of 
stone,  and  it  was  as  cool  and  fresh  as  could  be.  The 
bath  itself  was  a  large  semi-circular  place  into  which 
one  went  down  by  steps.  It  was  large  enough  to  swim 
in.  Those  old  peoples  understood  pretty  well  how  to 
make  themselves  comfortable,  didn't  they?  There 
was  an  ancient  bath-tub  there,  set  upon  a  pedestal, 
made  of  some  precious  stone,  which  Humboldt  had  ap- 
praised at  half  a  million  of  thalers.  Outside  was  a 
lovely  little  garden,  of  course,  and  one  of  the  prettiest 
things  I  saw  was  a  quantity  of  those  flowers  which  only 
grow  in  cool,  moist  places,  sheltered  under  an  awning. 
The  awning  was  circular,  and  stretched  down  to  the 
ground  on  three  sides,  so  that  one  could  only  see  the 
flowers  by  standing  just  in  front.    There  were  any 


74  MUSIC- STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

number  of  lady-slippers  of  every  shade,  each  mottled 
exquisitely  with  a  different  colour,  and  behind  them 
rose  other  flowers  in  regular  gradation,  and  all  of 
brilliant  tints.  It  seemed  as  if  they  were  all  nestling 
under  a  great  shaker  bonnet,  and  they  looked  as  coy 
and  bewitching  as  possible.  I  thought  it  was  a  charm- 
ing idea. 

After  we  left  this  place  we  went  on  until  we  came 
to  Sans  Souci,  which  was  built  simply  for  the  benefit 
of  the  orange  trees — to  give  them  a  shelter  in  winter. 
At  least,  this  was  the  pretext.  It  has  a  most  dazzling 
effect  in  the  sunshine  as  you  look  at  it  from  below. 
Terrace  rises  above  terrace,  and  at  the  top  is  this  airy 
white  building  rising  lightly  into  the  sky,  with  gal- 
leries and  towers,  groups  of  statuary,  colonnades,  fount- 
ains, flowers,  and  every  device  one  can  imagine  to 
make  it  look  as  much  like  a  fairy  palace  as  possible. 
The  great  burly  orange  trees  stand  in  rows  in  the  gar- 
dens in  large  green  pots.  Many  of  them  were  in  blos- 
som, and  cast  their  heavy  perfume  on  the  air.  You 
couldn't  turn  your  eyes  any  where  that  something  was 
not  arranged  to  arrest  and  surprise  them.  Here  I 
saw  another  way  of  training  roses.  Running  along  on 
the  green  turf  was  a  certain  low  growing  variety,  the 
branches  of  which  they  pin  to  the  earth  with  a  kind 
of  wooden  hair-pin,  so  that  it  does  not  show.  They 
thus  lie  perfectly  flat,  and  the  grass  is  literally  "  car- 
peted "  with  them.  It  was  lovely.  After  we  had  suf- 
ficiently admired  the  exterior  of  the  palace,  we  as- 
cended the  flights  of  steps  which  lead  up  the  terraces, 
and  went  into  it.     Outside  were  the  long  galleries 


SANS  SOUCI.  75 


where  the  orange  trees  stand,  and  then  we  passed  into 
the  large  and  noble  rooms.  First  came  the  one  which 
is  devoted  to  Raphael's  pictures.  Copies  of  them  all 
hang  upon  the  walls.  After  we  had  gazed  at  them  a 
long  time,  we  looked  at  the  other  apartments,  all  of 
which  were  furnished  in  some  extraordinary  way,  but 
I  glanced  at  them  too  hastily  to  retain  any  recollec- 
tion of  them.  I  only  remember  that  one  was  all  of 
malachite  and  gold. 

The  next  thing  we  did  was  to  go  over  the  palace 
originally  named  "  Sans  Souci,"  where  Frederick  the 
Great  lived.  We  saw  the  benches — ledges  rather — on 
which  his  poor  pages  had  to  sit  in  the  corridor,  and 
which  were  purposely  made  so  narrow  in  order  to  pre- 
vent their  falling  asleep  while  on  duty.  The  arm- 
chair in  which  he  died  is  there,  and  the  bust  of  Charles 
XII  still  stands  on  the  floor  at  the  foot  of  the  statue 
of  Venus,  where  Frederick  placed  it  in  derision, 
because  Charles  was  a  woman-hater.  I  think  it  was 
a  very  small  piece  of  malice  on  Frederick's  part,  and 
in  fact  he  had  such  a  bad  heart  that  none  of  his  relics 
interested  me  in  the  least. 

After  we  had  seen  everything  we  went  to  a  little 
restaurant  at  the  foot  of  Sans  Souci,  where  we  drank 
beer  and  coffee  and  ate  cake  seated  round  a  little  table 
under  the  trees.  This  fashion  that  the  Germans  have 
of  eating  out  of  doors  in  summer  is  perfectly  delight- 
ful, I  think.  I  laid  in  a  fresh  stock  of  cherries,  though 
I  had  already  eaten  an  immense  quantity,  but  they 
looked  so  nice,  piled  in  little  pyramids  upon  a  vine 
leaf,  like  the  cannon  balls  at  the  Cambridge  arsenal, 


76  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

that  there  was  no  resisting  them.  I've  thought  of  you 
ever  since  the  cherry  season  began.  They  are  so  ex- 
tremely cheap  here,  that  two  groschens  (about  six 
cents)  will  buy  as  many  as  two  persons  can  eat  at  one 
time.  We  drove  from  Sans  Souci  to  Fingstenberg, 
which  is  only  a  place  to  see  a  view  of  the  country. 
The  landscape  was  perfectly  flat,  but  it  had  the  charm 
of  quiet  cultivation.  It  was  green  with  beautiful  trees, 
and  the  river  wound  along  dotted  with  white  sails,  and 
there  were  wind-mills  turning  in  every  direction. 
After  we  left  Fingstenberg  we  drove  down  to  an  inn 
where  we  ordered  dinner,  and  this  also  was  served  out 
of  doors.  It  was  about  six  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and 
we  were  all  very  hungry,  so  we  enjoyed  this  part  of 
the  programme  very  much. 

When  we  had  finished  our  cutlet  and  green  peas  we 
got  into  the  carriage  again,  and  drove  to  Babelsberg. 
This  is  a  little  retreat  which  belongs  to  the  queen, 
and  where  the  royal  family  sometimes  passes  a  few 
weeks  in  summer.  We  walked  through  a  noble  park 
where  the  ground  swelled  upward  on  our  left  and 
sloped  downward  on  our  right.  After  following  the 
windings  of  the  road  for  a  long  distance,  we  at  last 
arrived  at  the  little  castle,  perched  upon  a  hill-side 
and  embowered  in  trees.  A  smart  looking  maid 
showed  us  through  it,  and  I  was  more  impressed  here 
than  by  all  I  had  previously  seen.  As  Salzac  says, 
"  People  who  talk  about  a  house  *  being  like  a  palace ' 
should  see  one  first," — although,  as  Herr  J.  oi^erved, 
"  Babelsberg  is  not  a  palace,  but  is  more  like  the  home 
of  an  English  nobleman."    It  is  just  a  quiet  little  re- 


EABELSBERG.  '^^ 


treat,  but  the  beauty  with  which  everything  is  arranged 
is  quite  indescribable.  Every  window  is  planned  so 
that  you  cannot  look  out  without  having  something 
exquisite  before  you.  Here  it  will  be  a  little  mosaic 
of  rare  flowers  ;  there  a  fountain,  etc.  And  then  the 
bronzes,  the  pictures,  the  rare  old  pieces  of  glass  and 
china,  the  thousand  curious  and  beautiful  objects  of 
art  that  one  must  see  over  and  over  again  to  be  able 
really  to  take  in.  In  these  castles,  too,  there  are  no 
end  of  little  nooks  and  crannies  where  two  or  three 
persons,  only,  can  sit  and  talk.  Dainty  little  recesses 
made  for  enjoyment. 

I  walked  into  the  grand  salon  and  imagined  an 
elegant  assemblage  of  people  in  it,  with  all  the  means 
of  entertainment  at  hand.  It  was  a  circular  room, 
and  large  enough  to  dance  the  German  in  very  com- 
fortably. We  went  up  stairs  and  through  the  differ- 
ent apartments.  I  went  into  the  Princess  Royal's  room, 
and  "  surveyed  my  queenly  form  "  in  the  superb  mir- 
ror, and  arranged  my  veil  by  her  toilette  glass — which 
I  envied  her,  I  assure  you,  for  it  shone  like  silver. 
We  saw  the  cane  of  Frederick  the  Great,  with  a  lion 
couchant  on  it — the  one  which  he  shook  on  some  oc- 
casion and  frightened  somebody — (now  you  know, 
don't  you  ?)  Last  of  all  we  went  up  into  the  tower,  and 
after  climbing  the  dizzy  staircase,  we  stood  on  the  bal- 
conies for  a  long  time,  and  looked  over  the  splendid 
park  about  the  country.  Altogether,  I  was  enchanted 
with  Babelsberg,  and  nothing  will  suit  me  now  but  to 
have  it  for  the  retreat  of  my  old  age.  I  think  I  shall 
apply  to  be  a  servant  there,  for  it  must  be  a  delightful 


lis  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

situation.  The  royal  family  is  only  a  short  time  there, 
and  the  servants  have  this  exquisite  habitation,  which 
is  always  kept  in  perfect  order,  all  the  rest  of  the  year, 
and  have  nothing  to  do  but  show  visitors  over  it  and 
take  in  half  thalers  ! 

After  we  left  Babelsberg  we  took  a  carriage  and 
drove  to  the  station,  where  we  got  into  the  cars  about 
half -past  nine,  and  went  back  to  Berlin.  Ilerr  J.  had 
made  himself  extremely  agreeable,  and  had  exerted 
himself  the  whole  day  on  our  behalf.  We  had  a  most 
perfect  time  of  its  kind,  and  I  enjoyed  every  minute 
of  it,  but  came  back  in  the  worst  of  spirits,  as  I  gen- 
erally do.  It  seems  so  hard  that  one  can  never  get 
together  all  the  elements  of  perfect  happiness  I  Here 
in  Babelsberg  everything  was  so  lovely  that  one  could 
scarcely  believe  that  there  had  ever  been  a  "  Fall."  It 
seemed  as  if  people  must  be  happy  there,  and  yet  I'm 
told  that  the  queen  is  very  unhappy.  I  suppose  be- 
cause she  has  such  a  faithless  old  husband. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  War.     German  Meals.     Women  and  Men.     Taugig's 

Teaching.    Tausig  Abandons  his  Conservatory. 

Dresden.     Kullak. 

Berlin,  July  23, 1870. 

Just  now  the  grand  topic  of  course  is  this  dreadful 
war  that  has  just  been  declared  between  Prussia  and 
France,  and  everybody  is  in  the  wildest  state  of  ex- 
citement over  it.  It  broke  out  so  very  suddenly  that  it 
is  only  just  one  week  since  it  has  been  decided  upon,  and 
ever  since,  the  drafting  has  been  going  on,  and  the 
streets  are  filled  with  regiments  and  with  droves  of 
horses,  cannon,  and  all  the  implements  of  war.  The 
trains  are  going  out  all  the  time  packed  with  soldiers, 
and  the  railroad  stations  are  the  constant  scene  of 
weeping  women  of  all  classes,  come  to  see  the  last  of 
their  dear  ones.  There  is  such  a  storm  of  indignation 
against  Napoleon  that  one  hears  nothing  but  curses 
against  him.  I  am  entirely  on  the  German  side,  and 
am  anxious  to  see  the  result,  for  between  two  such 
great  nations,  and  with  so  much  at  stake,  it  will  be  a 
tremendous  struggle. 

We  are  promised  a  holiday  soon,  when  I  shall  have 
a  let-up  from  practicing,  and  only  practice  three  hours 
a  day,  instead  of  five  or  six.  Don't  think  I  am  mak- 
ing extraordinary  progress  because  I  practice  so  much.  I 
find  that  the  strengthening  and  equalizing  of  the  fingers 

(79) 


80  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

is  a  terribly  slow  process,  and  that  it  takes  much  more 
P^time  to  make  a  step  forward  than  I  expected.     You 
I    may  know  how  a  thing  ought  to  be  played,  but  it  is 
I    another  matter  to  get  your  hands  into  such  a  training 
^     that  they  obey  your  will.     Sometimes  I  am  very  much 
encouraged,  and  feel  as  if  I  should  be  an  artist  "  im- 
mediately, if  not  sooner,"  and  at  others  I  fall  into  the 
blackest  despair.     I  don't  know  but  that  S.  J.  was  in 
the  right  of  it,  not  to  attempt  anything,  for  it  is  an 
awful  pull  when  you  do  once  begin  to  study ! 

I  wish  S.  could  come  here  and  spend  a  winter.  I 
am  sure  it  would  be  capital  for  her  health.  The  Ger- 
mans have  a  great  idea  that  you  must  "  stdrJcen 
(strengthen)"  yourself.  So  they  eat  every  few  hours. 
When  you  first  arrive  you  feel  stuffed  to  bursting  all 
the  time,  for  you  naturally  eat  heartily  at  every  meal, 
because,  as  we  only  eat  three  times  a  day  in  America, 
we  are  accustomed  to  take  a  good  deal  at  once.  Here 
they  have  five  meals  a  day,  and  one  has  to  learn  how 
to  take  a  little  at  a  time.  But  it  is  a  pretty  good 
idea,  for  you  are  continually  repairing  yourself,  and 
you  never  have  such  a  strain  on  your  system  as  to  get 
hungry !  The  German  women  are  plump  roly-polies, 
as  a  general  rule,  and  it  is  probably  in  consequence  of 
this  continual  "  strengthening."  One  has  full  opportu- 
nity to  observe  their  condition,  for  they  generally 
have  their  dress  " aus-geschnitten  (square  neck),"  as 
they  call  it,  in  order  to  save  collars,  and  you  will 
see  them  strolling  along  the  streets  with  their  dresses 
cut  open  in  front.  They  are  not  handsome — irregular 
features  and  muddy  complexions  being  the  rule.     The 


GIRLS  IN  GERMANY.  81 

way  they  neglect  their  teeth  is  the  worst.  They  are 
ahrays  complimenting  Americans  on  what  they  call 
our  "  fine  Grecian  noses,"  and,  in  fact,  since  they  have 
said  so  much  about  it,  I  have  noticed  that  nearly  all 
Americans  have  straight  and  reasonably  proportioned 
noses. — One  sees  a  great  many  handsome  men  on  the 
street,  however — many  more  than  we  do  at  home.  Per- 
haps it  is  because  the  Prussian  uniform  sets  them  off  so, 
and  then  their  blonde  beards  and  moustaches  give  them 
a  distingue  air. 
From  what  you  tell  me  of  the  shock  of  our  respected 

friend over  B.'s  travelling  from  the  AVest  under 

Mr.  S.'s  escort,  I  think  the  "conventionalities" 
are  taking  too  strong  a  hold  in  America,  and  it 
will  not  be  many  years  before  they  are  as  strict  there 
as  they  are  here,  where  yojing  people  of  different  sexes 
can  never  see  anything  of  each  other.  I  regard  it  as 
a  shocking  system,  as  the  Germans  manage  it.  Young 
ladies  and  gentlemen  only  see  each  other  in  parties, 
and  a  young  man  can  never  call  on  a  girl,  but  must 
Always  see  her  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  family.  I 
only  wondgr  how  marriages  are  managed  at  all,  for  the 
sexes  seem  to  live  quite  isolated  from  each  other.  The 
consequence  is,  the  girls  get  a  lot  of  rubbish  in  their 
heads,  and  as  for  the  men,  I  know  not  what  they  think, 
for  I  have  not  seen  any  to  speak  of  since  I  have  been 
here.  You  can  imagine  that  with  my  co-education 
training  and  ideas,  I  have  given  Fraulein  W.'s  moral 
system  a  succession  of  shocks.  She  has  been  fenced 
up,  so  to  speak,  her  whole  life,  and,  consequently,  was 
dumbfounded  at  the  bold  stand  I  take.  I  cannot  resist 
6 


82  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

giving  her  a  sensation  once  in  a  while,  so  I  come  out 
with  some  strong  expression.  Do  you  know,  since  Fve 
seen  so  much  of  the  world  I've  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  New  England  principle  of  teaching  daughters 
to  be  independent  and  to  look  out  for  themselves  from 
the  first,  is  an  excellent  one.  I've  seen  the  evil  of  this 
German  system  of  never  allowing  children  to  think 
for  themselves.  It  does  make  them  so  mawkish.  A 
girl  here  nearly  thirty  years  old  will  not  know  where 
to  buy  the  simplest  thing,  or  do  without  her  mother 
any  more  than  a  baby.  The  best  plan  is  the  old- 
fashioned  American  one,  viz. :  Give  your  children  a 
"  stern  sense  of  duty,"  and  then  throw  them  on  their 
own  resources. 


Berlin,  August  6,  1870. 
Until  yesterday  I  have  had  no  holiday,  for  I  got  into 
Tausig's  class  finally,  so  I  had  to  practice  very  hard. 
He  was  as  amiable  to  me  as  he  ever  can  be  to  anybody, 
but  he  is  the  most  trying  and  exasperating  master  you 
can  possibly  imagine.  It  is  his  principle  to  rough  you 
and  snub  you  as  much  as  he  can,  even  when  there  is 
no  occasion  for  it,  and  you  can  think  yourself  fortu- 
nate if  he  does  not  hold  you  up  to  the  ridicule  of  the 
whole  class.  I  was  put  into  the  class  with  Fraulein 
Timanoff,  who  is  so  far  advanced  that  Tausig  told  her 
he  would  not  give  her  lessons  much  longer,  for  that  she 
knew  enough  to  graduate.  You  can  imagine  what  an 
ordeal  my  first  lesson  was  to  me.  I  brought  him  a 
long  and  difiicult  Scherzo,  by  Chopin,  that  I  had  prao- 


TAUSIG  GIVES  UP!  83 

ticed  carefully  for  a  month,  and  knew  well.  Fancy 
how  easy  it  was  for  me  to  play,  when  he  stood  over 
me  and  kept  calling  out  all  through  it  in  German, 
"  Terrible  !  Shocking !  Dreadful !  0  Gott !  0  Gott !" 
I  was  really  playing  it  well,  too,  and  I  kept  on  in  spite 
of  him,  but  my  nerves  were  all  rasped  and  excite<l  to 
the  highest  point,  and  when  I  got  through  and  he 
gave  me  my  music,  and  said,  "  Not  at  all  bad  "  (very 
complimentary  for  him),  I  rushed  out  of  the  room 
and  burst  out  crying.  He  followed  me  immediately, 
and  coolly  said,  "What  are  you  crying  for,  child? 
Your  playing  was  not  at  all  bad."  I  told  him  that  it 
was  "  impossible  for  me  to  help  it  when  he  talked  in 
such  a  way,"  but  he  did  not  seem  to  be  aware  that  he 
had  said  anything. 

And  now  to  show  how  we  all  have  our  troubles,  and 
that  blow  falls  upon  blow — I  will  tell  you  that  at  our  last 
lesson  Tausig  informed  us  that  he  was  not  going  to  give 
another  lesson  to  anybody,  and  that  the  conservatory 
would  be  shut  up  on  the  fii*st  of  October ! !  This  is  the 
most  awful  disappointment  to  me,  for  just  as  I  have 
worked  up  to  the  point  where  I  am  prepared  to  profit 
by  his  lessons,  he  goes  away !  I  suppose  that  he  has 
left  Berlin  by  this  time,  or  that  he  will  very  soon,  but  he 
wouldn't  tell  when  or  where  he  was  going,  and  only  said 
that  he  was  going  off,  and  did  not  know  when  he  was 
coming  back,  or  what  would  become  of  him.  Of  course 
he  doei  know,  but  he  does  not  want  to  be  plagued  with 
applications  from  scholars  for  private  lessons.  I  heard 
that  he  was  only  going  to  retain  two  of  his  scholars,  and 
that  one  was  a  princess  and  the  other  a  countess. 


U  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

_____ /<    '      ■ 

He  is  a  perfect  rock.  I  went  to  his  house  to  see  if 
I  could  persuade  him  to  give  me  private  lessons.  He 
came  into  the  room  and  accosted  me  in  his  sharpest 
manner,  with  "  N'un^  was  isfsf  (Well,  what  is  it  ?)" 
I  soon  found  that  no  impression  was  to  be  made  on 
him.  He  only  said  that  when  he  happened  to  be  in 
Berlin,  if  I  would  come  and  play  to  him,  he  would 
give  me  his  judgment.  But  I  never  should  venture  to 
do  this,  for  as  likely  as  not  he  would  be  in  a  bad 
humour,  and  send  me  off — he  is  such  a  difficult  subject 
to  come  at.  I  told  him  I  thought  it  was  very  hard 
after  I  had  come  all  this  way,  and  had  been  at  so  much 
expense  only  to  have  le-ssons  from  him,  that  I  should 
have  to  go  back  without  them.  He  said  he  was  very 
sorry,  but  that  most  of  his  scholars  came  from  long 
distances,  and  that  he  could  not  show  any  special 
favor  to  me.  He  asked  me  why  I  insisted  upon  having 
lessons  from  him,  and  said  that  Kullak  or  Bendel  both 
teach  as  well  as  he  does.  The  fact  is,  he  is  a  capri- 
cious genius,  entirely  spoiled  and  unregulated,  and 
the  conservatory  is  a  mere  plaything  to  him.  H(j 
amused  himself  with  it  for  a  while,  and  now  he  is 
tired  of  it,  and  doesn't  like  to  be  bound  down  to  it, 
and  so  he  throws  it  up.  Money  is  no  consideration  to 
him. 

It  really  seems  almost  as  difficult  to  get  a  great 
teacher  in  Europe  as  in  America.  Tausig  is  the  only 
celebrity  who  teaches,  and  now  he  has  given  up.  He 
rather  advised  my  taking  lessons  of  Bendel,  who  is  a 
resident  artist  here,  and  a  pupil  of  Liszt's. 

I  suffered  terribly  over  Tausig's  going  off.    I  heard 


GERMAN  EQUANIMITY.  86 

of  it  first  two  weeks  ago,  and  couldn't  sleep  or  anything. 
The  only  consolation  I  have  is  that  I  should  have 
been  "  worn  to  the  bone/'  as  H.  0.  says,  if  I  had  kept 
on  with  him,  for  all  his  pupils  except  little  Timanoff, 
who  is  at  the  age  of  plump  fifteen,  look  as  thin  as  rails. 
However  — "  the  bitterness  of  death  is  past !"  When 
one  is  stopped  off  in  one  direction,  there  is  nothing 
for  it  but  to  turn  in  another.  But  it  seems  as  if  the 
more  one  tried  to  accomplish  a  thing,  the  thicker 
hindrances  and  difficulties  spring  up  about  one,  like  the 
dragon's  teeth.  I  suppose  I  shall  end  by  going  to  Kul- 
lak.  He  used  to  be  court  pianist  here  before  Tausig 
and  has  had  immense  experience  as  a  teacher.  Indeed, 
Professor  J.  K.  Paine  recommended  me  to  go  to  him 
in  the  first  place,  you  remember.  If  1  do,  I  hope  I 
shall  have  a  better  fate  than  poor  young  N.,  whom, 
also.  Professor  Paine  recommended  to  go  to  Kullak. 
He  could  not  stand — or  else  understand  the  snubbing 
and  brow-beating  they  gave  him  in  Kullak's  conser- 
vatory, and  from  being  deeply  melancholy  over  it,  he 
got  desperate,  and  actually  committed  suicide  ! 

Germans  cannot  understand  blueness.  They  are 
never  blue  themselves,  and  they  expect  you  always  to 
preserve  your  equanimity,  and  torment  you  to  death 
to  know  "what  is  the  matter?"  when  there  is  nothing 
the  matter,  except  that  you  are  in  a  state  of  disgust  with 
everything.  Moods  are  utterly  incomprehensible  to 
them.    They  feel  just  the  same  every  day  in  the  year. 


86  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 


Berlin,  August  21,  1870. 

I  suppose  that  C.  has  described  to  you  in  full  our 
Dresden  visit,  and  what  a  lovely  time  we  had.  It  was 
really  a  poetic  five  days,  as  everything  was  new  to 
both  of  us.  We  were  a  good  deal  surprised  at  many 
things  in  Dresden.  In  the  first  place,  the  beauty  of 
the  city  struck  us  very  forcibly,  and  we  both  remarked 
how  singular  it  was  that  of  all  the  people  we  know  who 
have  been  there  no  one  should  have  spoken  of  it. 
The  Bruhl'sche  Terrasse  is  the  most  lovely  promenade 
imaginable.  It  runs  along  the  bank  of  the  Elbe 
River,  which  is  here  quite  broad  and  handsome,  and  I 
always  felt  myself  under  a  species  of  enchantment  as 
soon  as  we  had  ascended  the  broad  flight  of  steps  that 
lead  to  it.  We  always  took  tea  in  the  open  air,  and  lis- 
tened to  a  band  of  music  playing.  The  Germans  just 
live  in  the  open  air  in  summer,  and  it  is  perfectly 
fascinating.  They  have  these  gardens  everywhere, 
filled  with  trees,  under  which  are  little  tables  and 
chairs  and  footstools  ;  and  there  you  can  sit  and  have 
dinner  or  tea  served  up  to  you.  At  night  they  are  all 
lighted  up  with  gas. 

It  seemed  like  fairy  land,  as  we  sat  there  in  Dresden. 
The  evenings  were  soft  and  balmy,  the  very  perfection 
of  summer  weather.  The  terrace  is  quite  high  above 
the  river,  and  you  look  up  and  down  it  for  a  long  dis- 
tance. The  city  lies  to  the  left,  below  you,  and  the 
towers  rise  so  prettily — precisely  as  in  a  picture.  This 
air  of  the  culture  of  centuries  lies  over  everything, 
and  the  soft  and  lazy  atmosphere  lulls  the  soul  to  rest. 


THE  8ISTINE  MADONNA.  87 

We  used  to  walk  until  we  came  to  the  Belvidere,  which 
is  a  large  restaurant  with  a  gallery  up-stairs  running 
all  round  it.  There  was  a  band  of  music,  and  here  we 
sat  and  took  our  tea,  and  spent  two  or  three  hours, 
always.  The  moonlight,  the  river  flowing  along  and 
spanned  with  beautiful  bridges,  the  thousands  of  lamps 
reflected  in  it  and  trembling  across  the  water  and 
under  the  arches,  the  infinity  of  little  steamers  and 
wherries  sailing  to  and  fro  and  brilliantly  lighted  up, 
the  music,  and  the  throngs  of  people  passing  slowly 
by,  put  one  into  a  delicious  and  bewildered  sort  of 
state,  and  one  feels  as  if  this  world  were  heaven ! 

The  day  after  we  arrived  we  went,  of  course,  to  the 
picture  gallery,  and  here  I  was  entirely  taken  by  sur- 
prise. Nothing  one  reads  or  hears  gives  one  the 
least  idea  of  the  magnificence  of  the  pictures  there. 
I  never  knew  what  a  picture  was  before.  The  softness 
and  richness  of  the  colouring,  and  their  exquisite 
beauty,  must  be  seen  to  be  understood.  The  Sistine 
Madonna  fills  one  with  rapture.  It  is  perfectly  glori- 
ous, and  one  can't  imagine  how  the  mind  of  man  could 
have  conceived  it.  One  sees  what  a  fliglit  it  was 
after  looking  at  all  the  other  Madonnas  in  the  Gallery, 
many  of  which  are  wonderful.  But  this  one  soars  above 
them  all.  Most  of  the  Madonnas  look  so  stiff,  or  so 
old,  or  so  matronly,  or  so  expressionless,  or,  at  best,  as 
in  Corregio's  Adoration  of  the  Shepherds  (a  magnifi- 
cent picture),  the  rapture  of  the  mother  only  is 
expressed  in  the  face.  In  the  Sistine  Madonna  the 
virgin  looks  so  young  and  innocent — so  virgin-like — 
not  like  a  middle-aged  married  woman.    The  large. 


88  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

wide-open  blue  eyes  have  a  dewy  look  in  them,  as  if 
they  had.  wept  many  tears,  and  yet  such  an  innocence 
that  it  makes  you  think  of  a  baby  whom  you  have 
comforted  after  a  violent  fit  of  crying.  The  majesty 
of  the  attitude,  and  the  perfect  repose  of  the  face, 
upon  which  is  a  look  of  waiting,  of  ineffable  expect- 
ancy, are  very  striking.  Mr.  T.  B.  says  it  looked  to 
him  as  though  she  had  been  overwhelmed  at  the  tre- 
mendous dignity  that  had  been  put  upon  her,  and  was 
yet  lost  in  the  awe  of  it — which  I  think  an  exquisito 
idea.  St.  Sixtus,  who  is  kneeling  on  the  right  of  the 
virgin,  has  an  expression  of  anxious  solicitude  on  his 
features.  He  is  evidently  interceding  with  her  for  the 
congregation  toward  whom  his  right  hand  is  out- 
stretched, for  this  picture  was  intended  to  be  placed 
over  an  altar.  The  only  fault  to  be  found  with  the 
picture,  I  think,  is  in  the  face  of  Santa  Barbara,  who 
kneels  on  the  left.  She  looks  sweetly  down  upon  the 
sinners  below,  but  with  a  slight  self -consciousness. 
The  two  cherubs  underneath  are  exquisite.  Their  lit- 
tle round  faces  wear  an  exalted  look,  as  if  their  eyes 
fully  took  in  the  august  pair  to  whom  they  are 
upturned.  The  background  of  the  picture — all  of  the 
faces  of  angels  cloudily  painted — gives  the  finishing 
touch  to  this  astounding  creation.  But  you  must  see 
it  to  realize  it. 

Since  my  return  I  have  finally  decided  to  take  private 
lessons  of  KuUak.  Kullak  is  a  very  celebrated  teacher, 
and  plays  splendidly  himself,  I  am  told,  though  he 
doesn't  give  concerts  any  more.  He  used  to  be  court 
pianist  here,  and  has  had  so  much  experience  in  teach- 


A  WAYWARD  GENIUS.  89 

ing  that  I  hope  a  good  deal  from  him,  though  I  don't 
believe  he  will  equal  our  little  Tausig,  capricious  and 
ill-regulated  though  he  is.  Never  shall  I  forget  the  iron 
way  he  used  to  stand  over  those  girls,  his  hand 
clenched,  determined  to  make  them  do  it !  No  wonder 
they  played  so !  They  didn't  dare  not  to.  He  told  one 
of  the  class  that  *'it  was  in  me,  and  he  could  knock  it 
out  of  me  if  he  had  chosen  to  keep  on  with  me."  And  I 
know  he  could — and  that  is  what  distracts  me  ! 

But  just  think  what  a  way  to  behave — to  leave  his  con- 
servatory so,  at  a  day's  notice,  in  hohday  time,  without 
even  informing  his  teachers !  He  left  everything  to  be 
attended  to  by  Beringer.  Many  of  the  scholars  are  very 
poor,  and  have  made  a  great  effort  to  get  here  in  order 
to  learn  his  method.  Off  he  went  like  a  shot,  because 
he  suddenly  got  disgusted  with  teaching,  and  he  hasn't 
told  a  soul  where  he  was  going,  or  how  long  he  intended 
to  remain  away.  He  wrote  to  Bechstein,  the  great  piano- 
maker  here,  "  I  am  going  away — away — away."  He 
wouldn't  condescend  to  say  more.  Mr.  Beringer  has  been 
to  his  house  to  see  him  on  business  connected  with  the 
conservatory,  but  he  was  flown,  and  his  housekeeper  told 
Beringer  that  both  letters  and  telegrams  had  come  for 
Tausig,  and  she  did  not  know  where  to  send  them.  Did 
you  ever  hear  of  such  a  capricious  creature?  I  was  so 
provoked  at  him  that  after  the  first  week  I  ceased  to  grieve 
over  his  departure.  One  cannot  rely  on  these  great  gen- 
iuses, but  I  hope  that,  as  KuUak  makes  a  business  of 
teaching,  and  not  of  playing,  more  is  to  be  gained  from 
him.  At  any  rate,  he  will  not  be  off  on  these  long 
absences. 


90  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

J  am  just  studying  my  first  concerto.  It  is  Beetho- 
ven's 0  minor,  and  it  is  extremely  beautiful.  Mr.  Ber- 
inger  tells  me  that  two  years  is  too  short  a  time  to  make 
an  artist  in ;  and  indeed  one  does  not  know  how  extremely 
difficult  it  is  until  one  tries  it.  He  plays  splendidly  him- 
self, and  is  to  make  his  debut  in  the  Gewandhaus  in 
Leipsic,  this  October.  The  best  orchestra  in  Germany 
is  there.  Tausig  has  turned  out  five  artists  from  his 
conservatory  this  summer.  Time  will  show  if  any  of 
them  become  first  class. 

Aunt  H.  was  right  in  thinking  that  this  would  be  one 
of  the  most  dreadful  wars  that  ever  was,  though  she 
needn't  be  anxious  on  my  account.  The  Prussians  are 
winning  everything,  and  are  pushing  on  for  Paris  as 
hard  as  they  can  go.  They  have  just  taken  Chalons. 
The  battles  have  been  terrible,  and  immense  numbers 
have  been  killed  and  wounded  on  both  sides.  They  have 
really  fought  to  the  death.  The  spirit  of  the  two  peo- 
ples seems  to  me  entirely  different.  The  French  seem 
only  to  be  possessed  by  a  mad  thirst  for  glory,  and  man- 
ifest a  blood-thirstiness  which  is  perfectly  appalling. 
One  reads  the  most  revolting  stories  in  the  papers  about 
their  creeping  around  the  battle-field  after  the  battle  is 
over,  and  killing  and  robbing  the  wounded  Prussians, 
cutting  out  their  tongues  and  putting  out  their  eyes. 
The  Prussians  are  so  on  the  alert  now,  however,  that  I 
hope  few  such  things  can  take  place.  One  Prussian 
writes  that  he  was  lying  wounded  upon  the  field  of  bat- 
tle, and  another  man  was  not  far  off  in  the  same  help- 
less condition,  when  an  old  Frenchman  came  up  and 
clove  this  other  man's  head  with  a  hatchet.    The  first 


THE  REALITIES  OF  WAR.  91 

screamed  loudly  for  help,  when  a  party  of  Prussians 
rushed  up  and  rescued  him,  and  ovei'took  the  old  man, 
and  shot  him.  We  hear  every  day  of  some  dreadful 
thing.  O.'s  cousin,  who  is  just  my  age,  and  is  three 
years  maiTied,  has  lost  her  husband,  her  favorite  brother 
is  fatally  wounded  with  three  balls  and  hes  in  the  hos- 
pital, and  her  second  brother  has  a  shot  in  each  leg  and 
they  don't  know  whether  he  will  ever  be  able  to  walk 
again.    He  is  a  young  fellow  nineteen  years  old. 

In  the  first  days  after  the  war  was  declared,  I  felt  as 
if  no  punishment  could  be  too  hot  for  Napoleon.  The 
people  just  gave  up  everything,  and  stood  in  the  streets 
all  day  long  on  each  side  of  the  railroad  track.  The 
trains  passed  every  fifteen  mmutes,  packed  with  the 
brave  fellows  who  were  going  off  to  lose  their  lives  on  a 
mere  pretext.  Then  there  would  be  one  continual  cheer- 
ing all  along  as  they  passed,  and  all  the  women  would 
cry,  and  the  men  would  execrate  Napoleon.  The  Prus- 
sians don't  seem  to  have  any  feelings  of  revenge,  but 
regard  the  French  as  a  set  of  lunatics  whom  they  are 
going  to  bring  to  reason.  The  hatred  of  Napoleon  is 
intense.  They  regard  him  as  the  leader  of  a  people 
whom  he  has  willfully  bhnded,  and  are  determined  to 
make  an  end  of  him,  if  possible.  The  Prussian  army 
is  such  a  splendid  one  that  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  that 
it  can  be  overcome.  You  see  everybody  under  a  certain 
age  is  liable  to  be  drafted,  and  no  one  is  allowed  to  buy 
a  substitute.  So  everybody  is  interested.  Bismarck  has 
two  sons  who  are  common  soldiers,  and  all  the  ministers 
together  have  twelve  sons  in  the  war.  Then  the  King 
and  the  Crown  Prince  being  with  the  army,  gives  a  great 


9^  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

enthusiasm.  The  Crown  Prince  has  distinguished  him- 
self, and  seems  to  have  great  mihtary  ability.  The  King 
was  very  angry  with  Prince  Fried  rich  Carl,  because  in 
the  last  battle  he  exposed  one  regiment  so  that  it  was 
completely  mowed  down.  Only  two  or  three  men 
escaped.  But  it  makes  one  groan  for  the  poor  French- 
men when  one  sees  these  terrible  great  cannon  passing 
by.  The  largest-sized  ones  were  ordered  for  the  storm- 
ing of  Metz,  and  each  one  requires  twenty-four  horses 
to  draw  it ! 


WITH  KULLAK. 

(98) 


CHAPTER  VII. 


Moving.    German  Houses  and  Dinners.    The  War.    The  Cap- 
ture of  Napoleon.    Kullak's  and  Tausig's  Teaching. 
Joachim.     Wagner.    Tausig's  Playing. 
German  Etiquette. 

Bbblin,  September  29, 1870. 
I  must  request  you  in  future  to  direct  your  letters 
to  No.  30  Koniggratzer  Strasse,  as  we  move  in.  three 
days.  The  people  who  live  on  the  floor  under  us 
wouldn't  bear  my  practicing  for  five  or  six  hours  daily, 
and  so  Frau  W.  has  looked  up  another  lodging.  The 
German  houses  are  about  as  uncomfortable  as  can  be 
imagined.  Only  the  newest  ones  have  gas  and  water- 
works, or  even  the  ordinary  conveniences  that  every 
house  has  with  us.  No  carpets  on  the  floors,  stiff, 
straight-backed  chairs,  precious  little  fire  in  cold 
weather,  etc.  The  rooms  have  no  closets,  and  one 
always  has  to  have  a  great  clumsy  wardrobe  with 
wooden  pegs  in  it,  instead  of  hooks,  so  that  when  you 
go  to  take  down  one  dress  all  the  others  tumble  down, 
too.  In  short,  the  Germans  are  fifty  years  behind  us. 
Of  course  the  rich  people  have  superb  houses,  but  I 
speak  now  of  people  in  ordinary  circumstances.  I  often 
look  back  upon  the  solid  comfort  of  the  Cambridge 
houses.  I  think  people  understand  there  pretty  well 
how  to  live.  I  shall  relish  a  good  dinner  when  I  come 
home,  for  this  is  the  land  where  what  we  call  "  family 

(95) 


96  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

dinners  "  are  unknown.  They  have  parts  of  meals 
five  times  a  day,  but  never  a  complete  one.  The  meat 
is  dreadful,  and  I  never  can  tell  what  kind  of  an  ani- 
mal it  grows  on.  They  give  me  two  boiled  eggs  for 
supper,  so  I  manage  to  live,  but  0 !  has  beefsteak 
vanished  into  the  land  of  dreams?  and  is  turkey  but 
the  figment  of  my  disordered  imagination  ?  They  have 
delicious  bread  and  butter,  but  "  man  cannot  live 
by  bread  alone."  Mr.  F.  says  that  where  he  boards  they 
give  him  "pear  soup,  and  cherry  soup,  and  plum 
soup !" 

Everything  here  is  saddened  by  this  fearful  war. 
You  have  no  idea  how  frightful  it  is.  The  men  on 
both  sides  are  just  being  slaughtered  by  thousands. 
Haven't  the  Prussians  made  a  magnificent  compaign? 
I  declare,  I  think  it  is  marvellous  what  they  have  dono. 
The  French  haven't  had  the  smallest  success,  and  have 
had  to  give  up  one  tremendous  stronghold  after  another. 
It  is  expected  that  Metz  will  surrender  in  about  eight 
days.  It  is  a  terrific  place,  and  was  believed  to  be 
impregnable.  Over  and  over  again  the  poor  French 
have  tried  to  cut  through  the  Prussian  army,  and  just 
so  often  they  have  been  beaten  back  into  the  city. 
Finally  they  will  have  to  give  over.  Their  generals 
must  be  shameful,  for  they  have  fought  to  the  death, 
but  they  can't  make  any  headway  against  these  for- 
midable Prussians.  The  German  papers  say  that  the 
French  fire  too  high,  for  one  thing.  They  are  not 
such  practiced  marksmen  as  the  Germans,  and  their 
balls  fly  over  the  enemy's  heads.  The  French  are 
a  savage  people,  however,  and  cruelty  runs  in  their 


THE  "  AFFAIR  OF  SEDAN."  97 

veins.  One  reads  the  most  awful  things,  but  for  the 
credit  of  human  nature  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
worst  of  them  are  not  true. 

I  believe  I  have  not  written  to  you  since  the  capture 
of  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  which  of  course  you  heard 
of  as  soon  as  it  happened.  The  Germans,  as  you  may 
imagine,  were  completely  carried  away  with  the  glori- 
ous news,  and  could  scarcely  believe  in  their  own  good 
fortune.  On  the  3d  of  September,  when  I  came  out 
to  breakfast,  Frau  W.  called  out  to  me  from  behind 
the  newspaper,  with  a  face  all  ablaze  with  triumph 
and  excitement,  "  Der  Kaiser  N'apoleon  ist  gefangen. 
(The  Emperor  Napoleon  is  taken.)"  "iVo.'"  said  I, 
for  it  did  not  seem  possible  that  anything  so  great  and 
unexpected  could  have  happened.  "  It  is  true^^  said 
she ;  "  look  at  this  paper,  which  I  just  sent  out  for." 
The  instant  I  saw  that  Frau  W.  had  been  guilty  of 
the  unwonted  extravagance  of  purchasing  the  morn- 
ing paper,  it  became  clear  to  me  that  Napoleon  must 
have  been  taken  prisoner.  Generally  we  do  not  get 
the  paper  till  it  is  a  day  old,  when  Frau  W.  brings 
it  carefully  home  from  her  brother's  in  her  capacious 
bag.  He  subscribes  for  it,  and  after  his  family  have 
perused  it,  she  borrows  it  for  our  benefit — an  economi- 
cal arrangement  upon  which  she  frequently  congratu- 
lates herself. 

I  fancy  there  was  little  work  done  or  business  trans- 
acted that  day  in  Berlin !  After  I  had  finished  my 
coffee,  I  went  and  stood  by  the  window  and  watched 
the  people  pour  through  the  streets.  Everybody 
streamed  up  Unter  den  linden  past  the  palace,  their 
7 


08  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

faces  full  of  joy.  The  street  boys  took  an  active  part 
in  the  general  jollification,  and  were  as  ubiquitous  as 
boys  always  are  when  anything  extraordinary  is  going 
on.  They  conceived  the  brilliant  idea  of  climbing 
up  on  the  equestrian  statue  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
which  is  just  opposite  the  palace  windows.  The 
Crown  Princess,  who  was  looking  out,  immediately  had 
it  announced  to  them  that  he  who  got  to  the  top  first 
should  receive  a  silver  cup  and  some  pieces  of  money. 
That  was  all  the  boys  needed.  Away  they  went,  strug- 
gling and  tumbling  over  each  other  like  a  swarm  of 
bees.  At  last  one  little  urchin  secured  the  coveted 
position,  and  was  afterward  called  up  to  the  palace 
window  to  receive  the  prize. — If  the  Crown  Princess, 
by  the  way,  were  more  given  to  such  little  acts  of  gen- 
erosity, she  would  be  more  popular  by  far,  for  the 
Germans  sniff  at  her  for  being  too  economical.  They 
are  the  closest  possible  economisers  themselves,  but 
they  despise  the  trait  in  foreigners  ! 

At  night  there  was  a  grand  illumination  in  honour  of  the 
victory,  and  of  course  we  all  went  to  see  it.  Such  a 
time  as  we  had  !  The  whole  city  was  blazing  with  light, 
and  all  the  large  firms  had  put  up  something  brilliant 
and  striking  before  their  places  of  business.  Stars, 
eagles, crosses  (after  the  celebrated  "iron cross"  of  Prus- 
sia), beside  countless  tapers,  were  burning  away  in  every 
direction,  and  all  the  carnages  and  droschkies  in  Berlin 
were  slowly  crawling  along  the  streets,  much  impeded  by 
the  dense  throng  of  pedestrians  crowding  through.  All 
the  private  houses  were  lit  up  with  tapers,  and  thousands 
of  flags  were  flying.     Over  every  public  building  and  rail- 


THE  BERLIN  "SMALL  BOY."  99 

road  station,  and  on  all  the  public  squares  were  trans- 
parencies in  which  the  substantial  form  of  Germajiia 
flourished  extensively,  leaning  upon  her  shield,  and  gazing 
sentimentally  into  vacancy.  But  I  always  enjoy  "  Ger- 
mania."  It  seems  a  sort  of  recognition  of  the  femi- 
nine element. 

We  were  in  a  droschkie,  like  other  people,  taking  the 
prescribed  tour  round  by  the  Rath-Haus  (City-Hall), 
and  were  frequently  brought  to  a  stand-still  by  the  crush. 
At  such  times  we  were  the  target  for  all  the  small  boys 
standing  in  our  neighbourhood.  The  "  Berlinger  Junge" 
is  almost  as  famous  for  his  talent  for  repartee  as  the 
Paris  '^  Gamin."  "  Do  be  careful !"  said  one  to  me ;  "you 
will  certainly  tumble  out,  your  carriage  is  going  so 
fast."  This  was  intended  as  a  double  sarcasm,  for  in 
the  first  place  we  were  not  in  a  carriage  at  all,  but  in  a 
second-class  droschkie,  and  in  the  second  place  we  had 
been  standing  stock  still  for  half  an  hour,  and  there 
was  no  prospect  of  getting  started  for  half  an 
hour  more.  Many  more  such  little  speeches  were 
addressed  to  us  which  we  pretended  not  to  hear,  though 
we  were  secretly  much  amused, — It  was  a  strange  sort  of 
feelmg  to  be  out  in  the  streets  at  night  with  this  glare 
of  light,  these  crowds  of  people,  and  this  suppressed 
excitement  in  the  air.  I  thought  it  gave  some  idea  of 
the  Day  of  Judgment. 

The  women  are  tremendously  patriotic  and  self-sacri- 
ficing, and  they  seem  to  be  throwing  themselves  heart 
and  soul  into  the  war.  With  the  catholicity  of  the 
female  sex,  however,  they  could  not  help  taking  a  peep 
at  the  French  prisoners  when  they  came  on,  but  went 


100  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

to  the  station  to  see  them  arrive,  and  bestowed  many  lit- 
tle hospitalities  upon  them  in  the  way  of  cigars,  luncheon, 
etc.,  at  all  of  which  the  papers  were  patriotically  indig- 
nant, and  indulged  in  many  sarcasms  on  the  "warm 
and  sympathetic  "  reception  given  by  the  German  women 
to  their  enemies.  Quite  as  many  women  go  into  nurs- 
ing as  was  the  case  in  our  own  war.  I  know  one  young 
lady  who  spends  her  whole  time  in  the  hospitals  among 
the  wounded  soldiers,  who  are  all  the  time  being  sent  on 
in  ambulances.  Her  name  is  Fraulein  Hezekiel,  and  she 
has  received  a  decoration  from  the  Government. 

Just  after  I  wrote  you  last  I  went  to  Kullak,  as  I 
told  you  I  should,  and  engaged  him  to  give  me  one 
private  lesson  a  week.  He  looks  about  fifty,  and  is 
charming.  I  am  enchanted  with  him.  He  plays  mag- 
nificently, and  is  a  splendid  teacher,  but  he  gives  me 
mimensely  much  to  do,  and  I  feel  as  if  a  mountain 
of  music  were  all  the  time  pressing  on  my  head.  He 
is  so  occupied  that  I  have  to  take  my  lesson  from  seven 
to  eight  in  the  evening. 

Tausig's  conservatory  closes  on  the  first  of  October, 
and  I  feel  very  sorry,  for  my  three  grand  friends,  Mr. 
Trenkel,  Mr.  Weber  and  Mr.  Beringer,  are  all  going 
away,  and  I  shall  be  awfully  lonely  without  them. 
Weber  is  very  handsome,  and  has  the  most  splendid 
forehead  I  think  I  ever  saw.  He  composes  like  an 
angel,  besides  being  remarkably  clever  in  every  way. 
He  will  be  famous  some  day,  I  know,  and  he  belongs 
to  the  Music  of  the  Future.  Beringer  is  poetic,  pas- 
sionate and  vivid.  He  has  golden  hair  and  golden 
eyes,  I  may  say,  for  they  are  of  a  peculiar  light  hazel. 


THREE  YOUNG  ARTISTS.  101 

almost  yellow,  but  with  a  warmth  and  sunniness,  and 
often  a  tenderness  of  expression  that  is  extremely 
fascinating.  Weber  cannot  speak  English,  and  as  he 
is  from  Switzerland,  he  speaks  an  entirely  dijfferent 
dialect  from  the  Berlinese,  so  that  it  took  me  some 
time  to  understand  him.  He  is  a  perfect  child  of 
nature,  and  has  a  great  deal  of  humour.  He  and  Ber- 
inger  are  devoted  friends,  and  are  about  my  age. 
Trenkel  is  older.  He  has  the  blackest  hair  and 
eyes,  and  a  dark  Italian  skin.  He  is  intellectual  and 
highly  cultured,  and  at  the  same  time  such  a  very 
peculiar  character  that  he  interested  me  greatly. 
Most  of  his  life  has  been  spent  in  America :  first  in 
Boston,  where  he  seems  to  know  everybody,  and  after- 
wards in  San  Francisco,  whither  he  is  about  to  return. 
He  has  been  studying  with  Tausig  for  two  years,  and 
IS  a  heavenly  musician,  though  he  hasn't  Beringer's 
great  technique  and  passion.  His  conception  is  more 
of  the  Chopin  order,  extremely  finely  shaded  and 
"  filed  out,"  as  the  Germans  have  it. 

It  was  so  pleasant  to  have  these  three  musical 
friends,  who  all  play  so  much  better  than  I,  as  they  often 
met  and  made  lovely  music  in  my  little  room.  "Weber 
and  Beringer  took  tea  with  us  only  yesterday  evening. 
Weber  was  in  one  of  his  good  moods,  and  played  to 
Beringer  and  me  his  most  beautiful  compositions  for 
ever  so  long.  We  settled  ourselves  comfoi-tably,  one 
in  two  chairs,  the  other  on  the  sofa,  and  enjoyed  it. 
The  x\ndante  out  of  a  great  sonata  he  is  composing, 
is  perfectly  lovely.  It  is  entirely  original,  and  dif- 
ferent from  any  music  I  have  ever  heard.    Then  he 


102  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

played  the  second  movement  of  his  symphony,  and  it 
is  the  most  exquisite  morceau  you  can  imagine.  I 
asked  him  to  compose  a  little  piece  for  me,  and  so 
yesterday  morning  he  sat  down  and  wrote  seven  mazur- 
kas, one  after  the  other.  Whether  he  actually  gives 
me  one  is  another  matter,  for,  like  all  geniuses,  he  is 
not  very  prodigal  with  his  gifts,  and  is  not  very  easy 
to  come  at.  But  I  would  like  to  have  even  four  bars 
written  by  him,  for  he  is  so  individual  that  it  would 
be  worth  keeping. 

Weber  looks  perfectly  charming  when  he  plays. 
He  never  glances  at  the  keys,  but  his  large  blue  eyes 
gaze  dreamily  into  vacancy,  and  his  noble  brow  stands 
out  white  and  lofty.  His  conception  is  extremely 
musical,  but  as  he  only  practices  when  he  feels  like  it 
(as  he  does  everything  else),  he  doesn't  come  up  to 
the  other  two.  Tausig  burst  out  laughing  at  him  at 
his  last  lesson.  That  individual,  by  the  way,  came 
back  as  suddenly  as  he  went  off,  but  announced  that 
he  would  give  no  more  lessons  except  to  these  favoured 
three.  All  the  rest  of  us  had  to  go  begging.  It  didn't 
make  so  much  difference  to  me,  as  I  had  already  gone 
to  KuUak,  who  is  now  the  first  teacher  in  Germany,  as 
all  the  greatest  virtuosi  have  given  up  teaching. 

Kullak  himself  is  a  truly  splendid  artist,  which  I 
had  not  expected.  He  used  to  have  great  fame  here 
as  a  pianist,  but  I  supposed  that  as  he  had  given  up  his 
concert  playing  he  did  not  keep  it  up.  I  found,  how- 
ever, that  I  was  mistaken.  His  playing  does  not  suf- 
fer in  comparison  with  Tausig's  even,  whom  I  have 
so  often  heard.     Why  in  the  world  he  has  not  contin^ 


KULLAK  AND  TAUSIG  TEACHING.  103 

ued  playing  in  public  I  can't  imagine,  but  I  am  told 
that  he  was  too  nervous.  Like  all  artists,  he  is  fasci- 
nating, and  full  of  his  whims  and  caprices.  He  knows 
everything  in  the  way  of  music,  and  when  I  take  my 
lessons  he  has  two  grand  pianos  side  by  side,  and  he 
sits  at  one  and  I  at  the  other.  He  knows  by  heart 
everything  that  he  teaches,  and  he  plays  sometimes 
with  me,  sometimes  before  me,  and  shows  me  all 
sorts  of  ways  of  playing  passages.  I  am  getting  no 
end  of  ideas  from  hini.  I  have  enjoyed  playing  my 
Beethoven  Concerto  so  much,  for  he  has  played  all  the 
orchestral  parts.  Just  think  how  exciting  to  have  a 
great  artist  like  that  play  second  piano  with  you! 
I  am  going  to  learn  one  by  Chopin  next. 

Kullak  is  not  nearly  so  terrible  a  teacher  as  Tausig. 
He  has  the  greatest  patience  and  gentleness,  and  helps 
you  on ;  but  Tausig  keeps  rating  you  and  telling  you, 
what  you  feel  only  too  deeply,  that  your  playing  is 
"  awful."  When  Tausig  used  to  sit  down  in  his  im- 
patient way  and  play  a  few  bars,  and  then  tell  me  to  do 
it  just  so,  I  used  always  to  feel  as  if  some  one  wished  me 
to  copy  a  streak  of  forked  lightning  with  the  end  of  a 
wetted  match.  At  the  last  lesson  Tausig  gave  me, 
however,  he  entirely  changed  his  tone,  and  was  ex- 
tremely sweet  to  me.  I  think  he  regretted  having 
made  me  ciy  at  the  previous  lesson,  for  just  as  I  sat 
down  to  play,  he  turned  to  the  class  and  made  some 
little  joke  about  these  "empfindliche  Amerikanerinnen 
(sensitive  Americans)."  Then  he  came  and  stood  by 
me,  and  nothing  could  have  been  gentler  than  his 
manner.     After  I  had  finished,  he  sat  down  and  played 


104  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

the  whole  piece  for  me,  a  thing  he  rarely  does,  intro- 
ducing a  magnificent  trill  in  double  thirds,  and  end- 
ing up  with  some  peculiar  turn  in  which  he  allowed 
his  virtuosity  to  peep  out  at  me  for  a  moment.  Only 
for  a  moment  though,  for  he  is  much  too  proud  and 
has  too  much  contempt  for  Spectakel  to  "show 
off,"  so  he  suppressed  himself  immediately.  It  was 
as  if  his  fingers  broke  into  the  trill  in  spite  of  him, 
and  he  had  to  pull  them  up  with  a  severe  check. 
Strange,  inscrutable  being  that  he  is ! 


Berlin,  October  13, 1870. 

My  room  in  our  new  lodging  is  a  charming  one. 
Quite  large,  and  a  front  one,  and  there  is  no  vis-d-vis. 
We  look  right  over  across  the  street  into  Prince  Al- 
brecht's  Garden.  It  is  very  uncommon  to  have  such 
a  nice  outlook,  particularly  in  Berlin.  But  it  is  so 
long  since  I  have  lived  among  trees  that  at  first  it 
affected  my  spirits  dreadfully.  As  I  sit  by  my  window 
and  hear  the  autumn  wind  rushing  through  them, 
and  see  all  the  leaves  quivering  and  shaking,  and 
think  that  they  have  only  a  few  short  weeks  more  to 
sway  in  the  breeze,  it  makes  me  wretched.  I  suppose 
that  we  shall  now  have  two  months  of  dismal  weather. 

I  wish  you  were  here  to  counsel  me  over  my  dresses. 
I  have  just  bought  two — one  for  a  street  dress,  and 
the  other  for  demi-evening  toilette,  but  heaven  only 
knows  when  they  will  be  done,  or  how  they  will  fit ! 
You  ought  to  see  the  biases  of  the  dresses  here !  They 
all  go  zig-zag.    The  Berlin  dressmakers  are  abomina- 


KULLAK'S  PIANO  STYLE.  105 

ble.     Mrs. ,  of  the  Legation,  told  me  that  when  she 

first  came  here  she  cried  over  every  new  dress  she  had 
made,  and  I  could  not  sufficiently  rejoice  last  winter 
that  i  had  got  all  my  things  before  I  sailed.  M.  E., 
too,  who  gets  all  her  best  things  from  Paris,  told  M. 
she  was  ne^^er  so  happy  as  when  her  mother  sent  her 
over  an  ''American  dress." — "  They  are  so  comfortable 
and  so  satisfactory,"  said  she. 

Yesterday  I  took  my  fourth  lesson  of  Kullak.  He 
plays  much  more  to  me  than  Tausig  did,  and  I  am 
surprised  to  see  how  much  I  have  got  on  in  four  weeks. 
Tausig  didn't  deign  to  do  more  than  play  occasional 
passages,  and  we  had  only  one  piano  in  the  room 
where  he  taught.  But  at  Kullak's  there  are  two  grand 
pianos  side  by  side.  He  sits  at  one  and  I  at  the  other, 
and  as  he  knows  everything  by  heart  which  he  teaches, 
as  I  told  you,  he  keeps  playing  with  me  or  before  me, 
so  that  I  catch  it  a  great  deal  better.  Sometimes  he 
will  repeat  a  passage  over  and  over,  and  I  after  him, 
like  a  parrot,  until  I  get  it  exactly  right.  He  has  this 
excessively  finished  and  elegant  fantasia  style  of  play- 
ing, like  Thalberg  or  De  Meyer.  He  has  great  fame 
as  a  teacher,  and  is  perhaps  more  celebrated  in  this 
respect  than  Tausig,  but  I  was  with  Tausig  too  short 
a  time  to  judge  personally  which  teaches  the  best^ 

This  war  is  perfectly  awful.  The  men  are  simply 
being  slaughtered  like  cattle.  New  regiments  are  all 
the  time  being  sent  on.  The  Prussians  have  taken 
over  two  hundred  thousand  prisoners,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  killed  and  wounded.  But  they  lose  fearful 
numbers  themselves  also.     It  is  expected  in  a  few  days 


106  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

that  Metz  will  surrender.  It  is  a  tremendous  strong- 
hold, and  contains  an  army  of  fifty  thousand  men. 
But  isn't  it  extraordinary  how  disastrous  the  war  has 
been  to  the  French?  They  had  an  immense  army 
of  several  hundred  thousand  men.  And  then  they 
had  all  the  advantages  of  position.  The  Prussians 
have  had  to  fight  their  way  through  all  these  strong 
defences  one  after  another.  They  will  soon  bombard 
Paris.  As  Herr  S.  says,  this  war  is  a  disgrace  to  the 
governments.  He  says  that  they  ought  to  have  united 
against  it  (America  included),  and  to  have  said  that 
on  such  an  unjust  pretext  they  would  not  permit  it. 
I  read  the  other  day  a  most  touching  letter  that  was 
found  on  the  dead  body  of  a  common  soldier  from  his 
old  peasant  father.  He  said,  "  What  have  we  poor 
people  done  that  the  lieher  Gott  visits  us  with  such 
fearful  judgments?  When  I  got  thy  letter,  my  dear 
son,  saying  that  thou  art  safe  come  out  of  the  last 
battle  with  thy  brother,  I  fell  on  my  knees  and  thanked 
God  for  His  goodness."  Then  he  goes  on  to  describe 
the  joy  of  his  mother  and  sister  and  sweetheart,  and 
how  he  read  his  letter  fco  all  the  neighbours,  "  who  re- 
joiced much  at  thy  safety,"  and  his  hope  and  confi- 
dence that  his  son  would  return  alive  to  his  old  father. 
But  in  a  few  days  his  son  fell  in  another  battle,  des- 
perately wounded.  He  was  carried  to  the  house  of  a 
lady  who  did  all  she  could  for  him,  but  he  died,  and 
she  sent  this  letter  to  the  paper.  Do  you  get  many  of 
the  anecdotes  in  the  American  papers?  Such  as  that 
of  the  three  hundred  and  two  horses  which,  at  the 
usual  signal  after  the  battle  that  called  the  regiments 


JOACHIM.  107 


together,  came  back  riderless?  I  think  that  was  very 
touching  in  the  poor  things.*  Or  have  you  heard  of 
the  Frenchman  who,  when  informed  that  the  Emperor 
was  taken  prisoner,  coolly  replied:  " Moi  aussi!" 
But  these  are  already  old  stories,  and  you  have  doubt- 
less heard  them.  I  think  one  of  the  worst  incidents 
of  the  war  is  that  bomb  that  fell  into  a  girls'  school  at 
Strasbourg.  When  one  thinks  of  innocent  young 
girls  having  their  eyes  torn  out,  and  being  killed  and 
wounded,  it  seems  too  terrible. — I  always  pity  the  poor 
horses  so  much.  At  the  surrender  of  Sedan,  the  French 
forgot  to  detach  them  from  the  cannon,  and  to  give 
them  food  and  drink.  Finally,  frantic  with  thirst, 
they  broke  themselves  loose  and  rushed  wildly  through 
the  streets.  It  was  said  that  any  body  could  have  a 
horse  for  the  trouble  of  catching  him. 


Beblik,  November  25, 1870. 
I  went  last  week  to  hear  Joachim,  who  lives  here, 
and  is  giving  his  annual  series  of  quartette  soirees.  Oh  I 
he  is  a  wonderful  genius,  and  the  sublimest  artist  I 
have  yet  heard.  I  am  amazed  afresh  every  time  I 
hear  him.  He  draws  the  most  extraordinary  tone 
from  his  violin,  and  such  a  powerful  one  that  it  seems 
sometimes  as  if  several  were  playing.     Then  his  ex- 

♦  In  Mr.  Longfellow's  Poems  of  Places  is  a  translation  of  Oerok's  poem 
on  the  subject  :— 

"  Over  three  hundred  were  counted  that  day 
Biderless  horses  who  joined  in  the  fray, 
Over  three  hundred  saddles,  O  horrible  sight! 
Were  emptied  at  once  in  that  terrible  fight." 


108  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

pression  is  so  marvellous  that  he  holds  complete  sway 
over  his  audience  from  the  moment  he  begins  till  he 
ceases.  He  possesses  magnetic  power  to  the  highest 
degree. 

On  Saturday  night  I  went  to  a  superb  concert  given 
for  the  benefit  of  the  wounded.  The  royal  orchestra 
played,  and  as  it  was  in  the  Sing-Akademie,  where  the 
acoustic  is  very  remarkable,  the  orchestral  perform- 
ance seemed  phenomenal.  Generally,  this  orchestra 
plays  in  the  opera  house,  which  is  so  much  larger  that 
the  effect  is  not  so  great.  The  last  thing  they  played 
was  the  "Ritt  der  Walkiiren,"  by  Wagner.  It  was 
the  first  time  it  was  given  in  Berlin,  tmd  it  is  a  wonder- 
ful composition.  It  represents  the  ride  of  the  Wal- 
kiire-maidens  into  Valhalla,  and  when  you  hear  it  it 
seems  as  if  you  could  really  see  the  spectral  horses 
with  their  ghostly  riders.  It  produces  the  most  un- 
earthly effect  at  the  end,  and  one  feels  as  if  one  had 
suddenly  stepped  into  Pandemonium.  I  was  perfectly 
enchanted  with  it,  and  everybody  was  excited.  The 
"  bravos "  resounded  all  over  the  house.  Tausig 
played  Chopin's  E  minor  concerto  in  his  own  glorious 
style.  He  did  his  very  best,  and  when  he  got  through 
not  only  the  whole  orchestra  was  applauding  him,  but 
even  the  conductor  was  rapping  his  desk  with  his  baton 
like  mad.  I  thought  to  myself  it  was  a  proud  position 
where  a  man  could  excite  enthusiasm  in  the  hearts  of 
these  old  and  tried  musicians.  As  a  specimen  of  his 
virtuosity,  what  do  you  say  to  the  little  feat  of  playing 
tb«  running  passage  at  the  end,  two  pages  long,  and 


FATIGUE  OF  GERMAN  PARTIES.  109 

which  was  written  for  both  hands  in  unison,  in  octaves 
instead  of  single  notes  ? — Gigantic  !  [Later  Kullak 
gave  this  great  concerto  to  my  sister  to  study,  and  as 
she  was  struggling  with  its  difficulties  he  said :  ''Ah 
yes,  Fraulein,  when  I  think  of  the  time  and  labour  I 
spent  over  that  concerto  in  my  youth,  I  could  weep 
tears  of  blood  ! ''Y-^b. 

Yesterday  evening  I  went  to  a  party  at  the  house  of 
a  relative  of  the  M/s.  Madame  de  Stael  was  right  in 
saying  that  etiquette  is  terribly  severe  in  Germany. 
It  is  downright  law,  and  everybody  is  obliged  to  submit 
to  it.  What  other  people  in  the  world,  for  example, 
would  insist  on  your  coming  at  eight  and  remaining 
until  nearly  four  in  the  morning,  when  the  party  con- 
sists of  a  dozen  or  twenty  people,  almost  all  of  them 
married  and  middle-aged,  or  elderly?  I  nearly  expire 
of  fatigue  and  ennui,  but  they  would  all  take  it  so  ill 
if  I  didn't  go,  that  there  is  no  escape.  Last  night  I 
came  home  with  such  a  dreadful  nervous  headache 
from  sheer  exhaustion,  that  I  could  scarcely  see.  You 
know  in  a  dancing  party  the  excitement  keeps  one  up, 
and  one  doesn't  feel  the  fatigue  until  afterward.  But 
to  sit  three  mortal  hours  before  supper,  and  keep  up 
a  conversation  with  a  lot  of  people  much  older  than 
yourself  in  whom  you  have  not  the  slightest  interest, 
and  in  a  foreign  language,  when  you  wouldn't  be  bril- 
liant in  your  own,  and  then  another  long  three 
hours  at  the  supper  table,  and  then  still  an  hour  or  so 
afterwards,  to  an  American  mind  is  terrible  !  I  always 
groan  in  spirit  when  I  think  how  comfortably  I  used 
to  jump  into  the  carriage  at  nine  o'clock,  in  Cambridge, 


110  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

go  to  the  party,  and  come  home  at  half -past  eleven  or 
twelve.  These  long  parties  are  what  the  Germans  call 
being  " gemiithlig  (sociable  and  friendly)."  The 
French  would  call  them  "  assommant^'  and  they  would 
be  entirely  in  the  right. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Concerts.      Joachim   again.      The  Siege  of  Paris.      Peace 

Declared.     Wagner.     A  Woman's  Symphony. 

Ovation  to  Wagner  in  Berlin. 

Berlin,  December  11, 1870. 

I  haven't  been  doing  much  of  anything  lately,  except 
going  to  concerts,  of  which  I  have  heard  an  immense 
number,  and  all  of  them  admirable. — I  wish  you  could 
hear  Joachim  !  I  went  last  night  to  his  third  soiree, 
and  he  certainly  is  the  wonder  of  the  age.  Unless  I 
were  to  rave  I  never  could  express  him.  One  of  his 
pieces  was  a  quartette  by  Hadyn,  which  was  perfectly 
bewitching.  The  adagio  he  played  so  wonderfully,  and 
drew  such  a  pathetic  tone  from  his  violin,  that  it  really 
went  through  one  like  a  knife.  The  third  movement 
was  a  jig,  and  just  the  gayest  little  piece  !  It  flashed 
like  a  humming  bird,  and  he  played  every  note  so  dis- 
tinctly and  so  fast  that  people  were  beside  themselves, 
and  it  was  almost  impossible  to  keep  still.  It  received 
a  tremendous  encore. 

Joachim  is  so  bold !  You  never  imagined  such 
strokes  as  he  gives  the  violin — such  tones  as  he  brings 
out  of  it.  He  plays  these  great  tours  deforce,  his  fin- 
gers rushing  all  over  the  violin,  just  as  Tausig  dashes 
down  on  the  piano.  So  free  !  And  then  his  concep- 
tion ! !  It  is  like  revealing  Beethoven  in  the  flesh,  to 
hear  him. 

(Ill) 


112  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

I  heard  a  lady  pianist  the  other  day,  who  is  becoming 
very  celebrated  and  who  plays  superbly.  Her  name 
is  Fraulein  Menter,  and  she  is  from  Munich.  She  has 
been  a  pupil  of  Liszt,  Tausig  and  Biilow.  Think  what 
a  galaxy  of  teachers !  She  is  as  pretty  as  she  can 
be,  and  she  looked  lovely  sitting  at  the  piano  there 
and  playing  piece  after  piece.  I  envied  her  dreadfully. 
She  plays  everything  by  heart,  and  has  a  beautiful 
conception.  She  gave  her  concert  entirely  alone, 
except  that  some  one  sang  a  few  songs,  and  at  the  end 
Tausig  played  a  duet  for  two  pianos  with  her,  in  which 
he  took  the  second  piano.  Imagine  being  able  to  play 
well  enough  for  such  a  high  artist  as  he  to  condescend  to 
do  such  a  thing !  It  was  so  pretty  when  they  were 
encored.  He  made  a  sign  to  go  forward.  She  looked 
up  inquiringly,  and  then  stepped  down  one  step 
lower  than  he.  He  smiled  and  applauded  her  as  much 
aiS  anybody.  I  thought  it  was  very  gallant  in  him  to 
stand  there  and  clap  his  hands  before  the  whole  audi- 
ence, and  not  take  any  of  the  encore  to  himself,  for 
his  part  was  as  important  as  hers,  and  he  is  a  much 
greater  artist.  I  was  charmed  with  her,  though.  She 
goes  far  beyond  Mehlig  and  Topp,  though  Mehlig,  too, 
is  considered  to  have  a  remarkable  technique. 

I  regret  so  much  that  M.  will  have  to  go  back  to 
America  without  seeing  Paris — the  most  beautiful  city 
in  the  world  !  Nobody  knows^how  long  the  war  is  going 
to  last.  The  Prussians  have  so  surrounded  Paris  that 
it  is  cut  off  from  the  country,  and  can't  get  any  sup- 
plies. They  have  eaten  up  all  their  meat,  and  now 
the  French  are  living  upon  rats,  dogs  and  cats  !     Just 


THE  SIEGE  OF  PARIS.  113 

think  how  horrid  !  They  catch  the  rats  in  the  Paris 
sewers,  and  cook  them  in  champagne  and  eat  them. 
(At  least  that  is  the  story.)  It  seems  perfectly  incon- 
ceivable. The  poor  things  have  no  milk,  no  salt,  no 
butter  and  no  meat.  I  wonder  what  they  do  with  all 
the  little  babies  whose  mothers  can't  nurse  them,  and 
with  young  children.  They  will  not  give  up,  however, 
for  they  have  bread  and  wine  enough  to  last  all  winter, 
and  they  declare  that  Paris  is  too  strong  to  be  taken. 
Of  course  if  the  Prussians  remain  where  they  are, 
eventually  Paris  will  be  starved  out,  and  will  be  obliged 
to  surrender. 

It  is  a  difficult  position  for  the  Prussians,  for  they 
must  either  bombard  the  city,  or  starve  it  out.  K 
they  bombard  it,  they  must  be  in  a  situation  to  begin 
it  from  all  sides,  or  else  the  French  will  break  through 
their  lines,  and  establish  a  communication  with  the 
rest  of  France.  Now  the  circle  round  Paris  is  twelve 
miles  long,  so  that  it  would  take  an  enormous  army  to 
keep  up  such  a  bombardment,  and  although  the  Prus- 
sian army  is  enormous,  I  don't  know  whether  it  is 
equal  to  that,  for  the  French  have  so  much  the  advan- 
tage of  position  that  they  can  fire  down  on  the  Prus- 
sians, and  kill  them  by  thousands.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  they  starve  Paris  out,  the  poor  soldiers  will  have  to  lie 
out  in  the  cold  all  winter,  and  many  of  them  will  die 
from  the  exposure. 

The  men  are  getting  very  restless  from  so  many 

weeks  of  inactivity.     Nobody  knows  how  it  is  to  end. 

The  King  is  opposed  to  bombardment,  for  aside  from 

the  terrible  loss  of  life  it  would  cause,  it  seems  too 

8 


114  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

inhuman  to  lay  such  a  splendid  city  in  the  dust. 
Fresh  troops  are  sent  on  all  the  time,  and  every  day 
the  trains  pass  my  windows  packed  with  soldiers.  It 
seems  as  if  every  man  in  Germany  were  being  called 
out,  and  that  looks  like  bombardment.  It  is  a  terrible 
time,  and  everybody  feels  restless  and  disturbed.  One 
sees  few  soldiers  on  the  streets  except  wounded  ones. 
I  often  meet  a  young  man  who  is  wheeled  about  in  a 
chair,  who  has  had  both  legs  cut  off.  The  poor  fellow 
looks  so  sad — and  I  know  of  another  who  has  lost  both 
hands  and  both  feet. 

It  is  curious  to  note  the  condescending  attitude 
taken  by  people  here  toward  the  French  in  this  war. 
They  never  for  a  moment  speak  of  them  as  if  they 
were  antagonists  on  equal  ground,  but  always  as  if 
they  were  a  set  of  fools  bent  on  their  own  destruction, 
who  must  be  properly  chastised  and  restored  to  their 
equilibrium  by  the  Germans.  "  Jal — die  FranzosenP^ 
the  Germans  will  say  with  a  shrug  which  implies  the 
deepest  conviction  of  their  entire  imbecility.  They 
admit,  however,  that  the  French  are  an  "  amusing 
people,"  and  that  ''Paris  ist  doch  die  Welt-Stadt, 
(Paris  is  the  city  of  the  world.)" 


Berlin,  February  26, 1871. 
I  am  going  to  send  you  a  song  out  of  the  Meister- 
Sanger,  which  I  think  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
songs  I've  ever  heard.  It  is  called  Walther's  Traumlied 
(Walter's  Dream  Song).  The  idea  of  it  is  that  he 
sees  his  love  in  a  dream  or  vision  as  she  will  be  when 


PEACE  DECLARED.  115 

she  is  his  wife.  You  must  begin  to  sing  in  a  dreanvy 
way,  as  if  you  were  in  a  trance,  and  then  you  must 
gradua-lly  become  more  and  more  excited  until  you 
end  in  a  grand  gush  of  passion.  You  will  be  quite  in 
the  music  of  the  future  if  you  sing  out  of  the  Meist- 
ersanger.  It  is  one  of  Wagner's  greatest  operas,  and 
is  very  beautiful,  in  my  opinion.  It  caused  a  grand 
excitement  when  it  came  out  last  winter. 

The  whole  musical  world  is  in  a  quarrel  over  Wag- 
ner. He  is  giving  a  new  direction  to  music  and  is 
Ending  out  new  combinations  of  the  chords.  Half 
the  musical  world  upholds  him,  and  declares  that  in 
the  future  he  will  stand  on  a  par  with  Beethoven  and 
Mozart.  The  other  half  are  bitterly  opposed  to  him, 
and  say  that  he  writes  nothing  but  dissonances,  and 
that  he  is  on  an  entirely  false  track.  I  am  on  the 
Wagner  side  myself.  He  seems  to  me  to  be  a  great 
genius. — Pity  he  is  such  a  moral  outlaw  ! 

Since  I  began  this  letter  Paris  has  capitulated,  and 
PEACE  has  been  declared.  The  anxiety  and  suspense 
have  lasted  so  long,  however,  that  the  news  did  not 
cause  much  excitement  or  enthusiasm.  Nothing  like 
that  with  which  the  capture  of  Napoleon  was  received. 
But  that  was  decidedly  the  event  of  the  war.  The 
politic  Bismarck  would  not  allow  the  troops  to  march 
triumphantly  through  Paris,  but  only  permitted  them 
to  pass  through  as  small  a  corner  of  it  as  was  consist- 
ent with  the  national  honour.  This  has  caused  a  good 
deal  of  murmuring  and  discontent  among  the  Germans. 
— "  Our  poor  soldiers  !  after  all  their  fatigues  and  hard- 
ships, they  ought  have  been  allowed  the  satisfaction  of 


116  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

marching  through  the  city  !" — is  the  general  opinion 
I  hear  expressed.  However,  they  will  probably  ac- 
quiesce in  Bismarck's  wisdom  in  not  triumphing  over 
a  fallen  foe  when  they  come  to  think  it  over.  We 
are  now  to  have  six  weeks  of  mourning  for  those  who 
have  been  killed  in  the  war,  and  then  in  May  the  army 
will  come  back  in  triumph.  The  King  is  to  meet  them 
at  the  Brandenburger  Gate,  and  lead  them  up  the 
Linden.  All  Berlin  will  be  wild  with  excitement,  and 
I  expect  it  will  be  a  great  sight.  The  windows  on 
Unter  den  Linden  are  already  selling  at  enormous 
prices  for  the  occasion. 

The  Germans,  by  the  way,  "  take  no  stock  "  at  all  in 
the  King's  pious  expressions  throughout  the  campaign. 
They  laugh  at  him  greatly  for  calling  himself  vic- 
torious "  by  the  grace  of  God."  "  Such  a  nonsense  !" 
Herr  J.  says,  contemptuously. 


Berlin,  April  22, 1871. 
I  haven't  a  mortal  thing  to  say,  for  all  the  little  I 
have  done  I  communicated  in  a  letter  to  N.  S.  Kul- 
lak  has  been  praising  my  playing  lately,  but  I  cannot 
believe  in  it  myself.  I  have  been  learning  a  Ballade 
"/  of  Liszt's.  It  is  beautiful  but  very  hard,  and  with  some 
terrific  octave  passages  in  it.  It  has  the  double  roll  of 
octaves  in  it,  and  this  is  the  first  time  I  ever  learned 
how  it  was  done.  I  am  now  studying  octaves  system- 
atically. Kullak  has  written  three  books  of  them,  and 
it  is  an  exhaustive  work  on  the  subject,  and  as  famous 
in  its  way  as  the  Gradus  ad  Parnassum.     The  first  vol- 


A  WOMAN'S  SYMPHONY.  117 

'  — — —  * 

ume  is  only  the  preparation,  and  the  exercises  are  for 
each  hand  separately.  There  are  a  lot  of  them  for 
the  thumb  alone,  for  instance.  Then  there  are  others 
for  the  fourth  and  fifth  fingers,  turning  over  and  un- 
der each  other  in  every  conceivable  way.  Then  there 
are  the  wrist  exercises,  and,  in  short,  it  is  the  most 
minute  and  complete  work.  Kullak  himself  is  cele- 
brated for  his  octave  playing.  That  I  knew  when  I 
was  in  Tausig's  conservatory,  as  Tausig  used  to  tell  his 
scholars  that  they  must  study  Kullak's  Octave  School.^ 

Wagner  has  come  to  Berlin  for  a  visit,  and  next 
week  he  will  have  a  grand  concert,  when  some  of  his 
compositions  are  to  be  brought  out,  and  he  will,  him- 
self, conduct.  Weitzmann  says  that  he  is  a  great  con- 
ductor. I  heard  his  opera  of  Tannhaiiser  the  other 
day,  and  I  was  perfectly  carried  away  with  the  over- 
ture, which  I  had  not  heard  for  a  long  time.  The 
orchestra  played  it  magnificently,  and  I  think  it  quite 
equal  to  Beethoven.  Wagner's  theory  is  that  music  is  , 
a  cry  of  the  mind,  and  his  compositions  certainly  illus- 
trate it.  All  other  music  pales  before  it  in  passion 
and  intensity. 

Did  you  read  my  letter  to  N.  S.  in  which  I  told  her 
about  Alicia  Hund,  who  composed  and  conducted  a 
symphony?  That  is  quite  a  step  for  women  in  the 
musical  line.  She  reminded  me  of  M.,  as  she  had  just 
such  a  high-strung  face.  All  the  men  were  highly 
disgusted  because  she  was  allowed  to  conduct  the  or- 
chestra herself.  I  didn't  think  myself  that  it  was  a 
very  becoming  position,  though  I  had  no  prejudice 
against  it.  Somehow,  a  woman  doesn't  look  well  with 
a  baton  i^  her  hand  directing  a  body  of  men. 


118  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 


Berlin,  May  18, 1871. 

Wagner  has  just  been  in  Berlin,  and  his  arrival  here 
has  been  the  occasion  of  a  grand  musical  excitement. 
He  was  received  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm,  and 
there  was  no  end  of  ovations  in  his  honour.  First, 
there  was  a  great  supper  given  to  him,  which  was  got 
up  by  Tausig  and  a  few  other  distinguished  musicians. 
Then  on  Sunday,  two  weeks  ago,  was  given  a  concert 
in  the  Sing-Akademie,  where  the  seats  were  free.  As 
the  hall  only  holds  about  fifteen  hundred  people,  you 
may  imagine  it  was  pretty  difficult  to  get  tickets.  I 
didn't  even  attempt  it,  but  luckily  Weitzmann,  my 
harmony  teacher,  who  is  an  old  friend  of  Wagner's, 
sent  me  one. 

The  orchestra  was  immense.  It  was  carefully  se- 
lected from  all  the  orchestras  in  Berlin,  and  Stern,  who 
directed  it,  had  given  himself  infinite  trouble  in  train- 
ing it.  Wagner  is  the  most  difficult  person  in  the 
world  to  please,  and  is  a  wonderful  conductor  himself. 
He  was  highly  discontented  with  the  Gewandhaus  Or- 
chestra in  Leipsic,  which  thinks  itself  the  best  in  ex- 
istence, so  the  Berlinese  felt  rather  shaky.  The  hall 
was  filled  to  overflowing,  and  finally,  in  marched  Wag- 
ner and  his  wife,  preceded  and  followed  by  various 
distinguished  musicians.  As  he  appeared  the  audience 
rose,  the  orchestra  struck  up  three  clanging  chords, 
and  everybody  shouted  Hochl  It  gave  one  a  strange 
thrill. 

The  concert  was  at  twelve,  and  was  preceded  by  a 
"greeting"   which  was  recited  by  Frau   Jachmann 


THE  WAGNER  CONCERT.  119 

Wagner,  a  niece  of  Wagner's,  and  an  actress.  She  was 
a  pretty  woman,  "  fair,  fat  and  forty,"  and  an  excellent 
speaker.  As  she  concluded  she  burst  into  tears,  and 
stepping  down  from  the  stage  she  presented  Wagner 
with  a  laurel  crown,  and  kissed  him.  Then  the  or- 
chestra played  Wagner's  Faust  Overture  most  superbly, 
and  afterwards  his  Fest  March  from  the  Tannhauser. 
The  applause  was  unbounded.  Wagner  ascended  the 
stage  and  made  a  little  speech,  in  which  he  expressed 
his  pleasure  to  the  musicians  and  to  Stern,  and  then 
turned  and  addressed  the  audience.  He  spoke  very 
rapidly  and  in  that  child-like  way  that  all  great  musi- 
cians seem  to  have,  and  as  a  proof  of  his  satisfaction 
with  the  orchestra  he  requested  them  to  play  the  Faust 
Overture  under  his  direction.  We  were  all  on  tiptoe 
to  know  how  he  would  direct,  and  indeed  it  was  won- 
derful to  see  him.  He  controlled  the  orchestra  as  if 
it  were  a  single  instrument  and  he  were  playing  on  it. 
He  didn't  beat  the  time  simply,  as  most  conductors  do, 
but  he  had  all  sorts  of  little  ways  to  indicate  what  he 
wished.  It  was  very  difficult  for  them  to  follow  him, 
and  they  had  to  "  keep  their  little  eye  open,"  as  B. 
used  to  say.  He  held  them  down  during  the  first  part, 
so  as  to  give  the  uncertainty  and  speculativeness  of 
Faust's  character.  Then  as  Mephistopheles  came  in, 
he  gradually  let  them  loose  with  a  terrible  crescendo, 
and  made  you  feel  as  if  hell  suddenly  gaped  at  your 
feet.  Then  where  Gretchen  appeared,  all  was  delicious 
melody  and  sweetness.  And  so  it  went  on,  like  a  suc- 
cession of  pictures.  The  effect  was  tremendous. 
I  had  one  of  the  best  seats  in  the  house,  and  could 


120  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

see  Wagner  and  his  wife  the  whole  time.  He  has  an 
enormous  forehead,  and  is  the  most  nervous-looking 
man  you  can  imagine,  but  has  that  grim  setting  of  the 
mouth  that  betokens  an  iron  will.  When  he  conducts 
he  is  almost  beside  himself  with  excitement.  That  is 
one  reason  why  he  is  so  great  as  a  conductor,  for  the 
orchestra  catches  his  frenzy,  and  each  man  plays  un- 
der a  sudden  inspiration.  He  really  seems  to  be  im- 
provising  on  his  orchestra. 

Wagner's  object  in  coming  here  was  to  try  and  get 
his  Nibelungen  opera  performed.  It  is  an  opera  which 
requires  four  evenings  to  get  through  with.  Did  you 
ever  hear  of  such  a  thing?  He  lays  out  everything 
on  such  a  colossal  scale.  It  reminded  me  of  that  story 
they  tell  of  him  when  he  was  a  boy.  He  was  a 
great  Shakespeare  enthusiast,  and  wanted  to  write 
plays,  too.  So  he  wrote  one  in  which  he  killed  off 
forty  of  the  principal  characters  in  the  last  act !  He 
gave  a  grand  concert  in  the  opera  house  here,  which 
he  directed  himself.  It  was  entirely  his  own  composi- 
tions, with  the  exception  of  Beethoven's  Fifth  Sym- 
phony, which  he  declared  nobody  understood  but  him- 
self. That  rather  took  down  Berlin,  but  all  had  to 
acknowledge  after  the  concert  that  they  had  never 
heard  it  so  magnificently  played.  He  has  his  own 
peculiar  conception  of  it.  There  was  a  great  crowd, 
and  every  seat  had  been  taken  long  before.  All  the 
artists  were  present  except  Kullak,  who  was  ill.  I  saw 
Tausig  sitting  in  the  front  rank  with  the  Baroness 
von  S.  There  must  have  been  two  hundred  players  in 
the  orchestra,  and  they  acquitted  themselves  splen- 


WAGNER  CONDUCTING.  121 

didly.  The  applause  grew  more  and  more  enthusi- 
astic, until  it  finally  found  vent  in  a  shower  of  wreaths 
and  bouquets.  Wagner  bowed  and  bowed,  and  it 
seemed  as  if  the  people  would  never  settle  down  again. 
At  the  end  of  the  concert  followed  another  shower  of 
flowers,  and  his  Kaiser  March  was  encored.  Such  an 
effect !  Aftei>  the  tempest  of  sound  of  the  introduc- 
tion the  drums  came  in  with  a  sharp  tat-tat-tat-tat- 
tat !  Then  the  brass  began  with  the  air  and  came  to  a 
crescendo,  at  last  blaring  out  in  such  a  way  as  shivered 
you  to  the  very  marrow  of  your  bones.  It  was  like  an 
earthquake  yawning  before  you. 

The  noise  was  so  tremendous  that  it  was  like  the 
roaring  of  the  surf.  I  never  conceived  of  anything 
in  music  to  approach  it,  and  Wagner  made  me  think 
of  a  giant  Triton  disporting  himself  amid  the  billows 
and  tossing  these  great  waves  of  sound  from  one  hand 
to  the  other.  You  don^t  see  his  face,  of  course — noth- 
ing but  his  back,  and  yet  you  know  every  one  of  his 
emotions.  Every  sinew  in  his  body  speaks.  He 
makes  the  instruments  prolong  the  tones  as  no  one 
else  does,  and  the  effect  is  indescribably  beautiful,  yet 
he  complains  that  he  never  can  get  an  orchestra  to 
hold  the  tone  as  they  ought.  His  whole  appearance 
is  of  arrogance  and  despotism  personified. 

By  the  end  of  the  concert  the  bouquets  were  so 
heaped  on  the  stage  in  front  of  the  director's  desk, 
that  Wagner  had  no  place  left  big  enough  to  stand  on 
without  crushing  them.  Altogether,  it  was  a  bril- 
liant affair,  and  a  great  triumph  for  his  friends.  He 
has  a  great  many  bitter  enemies  here,  however.    Joa- 


132  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

chim  is  one  of  them,  though  it  seems  unaccountable 
that  a  man  of  his  musical  gifts  should  be.  Ehlert 
Is  also  a  strong  anti-Wagnerite,  and  the  Jews  hate 
him  intensely. — Perhaps  his  character  has  something 
to  do  with  it,  for  he  has  set  all  laws  of  honour,  gratitude 
and  morality  at  defiance  all  his  life  long.  It  is  a  dread- 
ful example  for  younger  artists,  and  I  think  Wagner  is 
depraving  them.  In  this  country  everything  is  forgiven 
to  audacity  and  genius,  and  I  must  say  that  if  Ger- 
many can  teach  us  Music,  we  can  teach  her  morals ! 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Difficulties  of  the  Piano.    Triumphal  Entry  of  the  Troops. 
Paris. 

Berlin,  June  25,  1871. 

I  have  been  learning  Beethoven's  G  major  Concerto 
lately,  and  it  is  the  most  horribly  difficult  thing  I've 
ever  attempted.  I  have  practiced  the  first  movement 
a  whole  month,  and  I  can't  play  it  any  more  than  I 
can  fly.  If  you  hear  Miss  Mehlig  play  it,  I  trust  you 
will  take  in  what  a  feat  it  is.  Kullak  gave  me  a  reg- 
ular rating  over  it  at  my  last  lesson,  and  told  me  I 
must  stick  to  it  till  I  could  play  it.  It  requires  the 
gi'eatest  rapidity  and  facility  of  execution,  and  I  get 
perfectly  desperate  over  it.  Kullak  took  advantage 
of  the  occasion  to  expand  upon  all  the  things  an  artist 
must  be  able  to  do,  until  my  heart  died  within  me. 
"  What  do  you  know  of  double  thirds  ?"  said  he.  I 
had  to  admit  that  I  knew  nothing  of  double  thirds, 
and  then  he  rushed  down  the  piano  like  lightning 
from  top  to  bottom  in  a  scale  in  double  thirds,  just  as 
if  it  were  a  common  scale. 

In  one  respect  Kullak  is  a  more  discouraging  teacher 
than  Tausig,  for  Tausig  only  played  occasionally 
before  you,  where  it  was  absolutely  necessary,  and  con- 
tented himself  with  scolding  and  blammg.  Kullak, 
on  the  contrary,  doesn't  scold  much,  but  as  he  plays 
continually  before  and  with  you,  with  him  you  see 
(123) 


124  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

how  the  thing  ought  to  be  done,  and  the  perception 
of  your  own  deficiencies  stands  out  before  you  merci- 
lessly. My  constant  thought  is,  "When  will  my  pas- 
sages pearl?  When?^*7^  my  touch  be  perfectly  equal? 
When  will  my  octaves  be  played  from  a  lightly -hung 
wrist  ?  When  will  my  trill  be  brilliant  and  sustained? 
When  will  my  thumb  turn  under  and  my  fourth  fin- 
ger over  without  the  slightest  perceptible  break? 
When  will  my  arpeggios  go  up  the  piano  in  that 
peculiar  roll  that  a  genuine  artist  gives?"  etc.,  etc. 
All  this  gives  a  heavy  heart,  and  so  disinclines  me  to 
write  that  you  must  excuse  my  frequent  silences. 

We  are  having  such  a  horrid  cold  summer  that  I 
sit  and  shiver  all  the  time.  I  wish  we  could  have  a 
little  of  the  hot  weather  you  speak  of.  I  have  put  on 
a  muslin  dress  only  once.  Berlin  is  a  very  severe  cli- 
mate, I  think. 

The  week  before  last  was  the  triumphal  entry  or 
"  Einzug  "  of  the  troops.  They  all  went  past  "my  win- 
dow, so  I  had  a  full  view  of  them.  The  Emperor  had 
made  immense  preparations,  for  he  is  very  proud  of 
his  army.  All  along  the  Koniggratzer  Strasse  (the 
street  we  live  in),  to  the  Brandenburger  Gate,  a  dis- 
tance of  two  or  three  miles,  were  set  tall  poles  at  inter- 
vals of  a  few  feet,  connected  by  wreaths  of  green. 
These  were  painted  red  and  white,  and  had  gilded  pin- 
nacles ;  they  were  surmounted  by  the  Prussian  flag, 
which  is  black  and  white,  with  a  black  eagle  in  the 
centre.  About  half  way  down  the  poles  was  set  a  coat 
of  arms,  with  the  flags  of  the  older  German  States 
grouped  about  it.    As  they  were  of  different  colours, 


REJOICING  BERLIN.  126 

the  effect  was  very  gay,  and  they  made  a  triumphal 
path  of  waving  banners  for  the  troops  to  pass  under. 
All  along  the  last  part  of  the  Koniggratzer  Strasse, 
before  you  come  to  the  Linden,  were  set  the  French 
cannon  which  were  captured,  and  on  them  was  printed 
the  name  of  the  place  where  the  battle  was,  and  one 
read  on  them  "  Metz,  Sedan,  Strasburg,"  etc.  All  up 
the  Linden,  too,  the  way  for  the  soldiers  was  hemmed 
in  on  each  side  with  cannon.  The  mitrailleuses  inter- 
ested me  the  most,  because  they  had  thirty  bores  in 
each  one,  and  could  fire  as  many  balls  in  succession. 
In  this  way,  you  see,  a  single  cannon  could  rain  shot. 
Luckily  the  French  aim  so  badly  that  they  couldn't 
have  killed  half  so  many  Prussians  as  they  expected. 
On  every  Platz  (as  the  Germans  call  the  squares),  were 
columns  and  statues  set  up,  and  enormous  scaffolds  for 
people  to  sit  on,  all  decked  out  with  flags  and  coloured 
cloth.  In  short,  the  whole  city  was  got  up  in  gala 
array,  and  looked  as  gay  as  possible. 

Of  course  there  were  thousands  of  strangers  who  had 
come  on  to  see  it,  and  the  streets  were  crowded.  For 
about  a  week  beforehand  there  was  one  continual  stream 
of  people  going  by  our  house,  and  a  long  Une  of  cai'- 
riages  and  droschkies  as  far  as  one  could  see,  creeping 
along  at  a  snail's  pace  behind  each  other.  I  got  worn  out 
with  the  noise  and  confusion  long  before  the  eventful 
day  came.  When  it  did  arrive,  already  at  six  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  when  I  looked  out  of  my  window,  the  walls 
of  Prince  Albrecht's  garden  opposite  were  covered  with 
boys  and  men,  and  there  they  had  to  sit  until  nearly  twelve 
o'clock,  with  their  legs  dangling  down,  and  nothing  to  eat 


126  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

or  drink,  before  the  procession  came  by,  and  then  it 
took  four  hours  to  pass!  Such  is  German  endur- 
ance, and  a  still  more  striking  instance  of  it  was  shown 
by  an  orchestra  stationed  on  the  sidewalk  opposite  my 
window.  There  were  no  seats  or  awnings  for  them,  and 
there  they  stood  on  the  stones  in  the  hot  sun  for  fully 
six  hours,  playing  every  little  while  on  those  heavy 
French  horns  and  trumpets.  Just  imagine  it !  I  was 
astonished  that  there  was  no  scaffold  erected  for  them 
to  sit  on,  and  wondered  how  the  poor  fellows  could  stand 
it. 

Just  before  eleven  o'clock  the  gate  of  Prince  Albrecht's 
garden  flew  open,  and  out  he  rode,  accompanied  by  a 
large  suite,  and  they  remained  there  awaiting  the  Em- 
peror, who  was  to  ride  by  on  his  way  to  meet  the  troops. 
I  wish  you  could  have  seen  them  hi  their  superb  uniforms, 
seated  on  their  magnificent  horses.  They  looked  like 
knights  of  the  olden  time,  with  their  embroidered  saddle- 
cloths and  gay  trappings.  Preceding  the  Emperor  came 
the  Empress  and  all  the  ladies  of  the  royal  family  in 
about  ten  carriages,  each  one  with  six  horses  and  the 
Empress's  with  eight.  The  ladies  were  gorgeously  dressed, 
of  course,  in  light  coloured  silks  with  lace  over-dresses. 
Then  came  the  Emperor  and  his  escort,  riding  slowly  and 
majestically  along.  The  enthusiasm  was  immense  as  they 
passed  by,  and  they  were  indeed  a  proud  sight.  Bismarck, 
Moltke  and  Von  Koon  rode  in  one  row  by  themselves.  Bis- 
marck looked  very  imposing  in  his  uniform  entirely  of 
white  and  silver,  with  enormous  top-boots,  and  a  brazen 
helmet  surmounted  by  a  silver  eagle.  There  was  every 
variety  of  uniform,  and  the  Crown  Prince  looked  very 


THE  VICTORIOUS  ARMY.  127 

handsome  in  his.  He  is  a  splendid-looking  man,  with  a 
very  soldierly  bearing,  and  he  rides  to  perfection. 

The  royal  party  went  out  to  the  parade  ground,  where 
they  met  the  army,  and  then  returned  at  the  head  of  it, 
riding  very  slowly.  Then,  for  four  hours,  the  soldiers 
poured  by  at  a  very  quick  step.  If  you  could  have  seen 
that  river  of  men  roll  along,  you  would  have  some  idea 
of  the  strength  of  this  nation.  They  were  tall  for  the 
most  part,  and  their  helmets  and  guns  glittered  in  the 
sun.  They  were  dressed  in  their  old  uniforms,  just 
as  they  came  from  the  field  of  battle.  The  people 
showered  wreaths  and  bouquets  upon  them  as  they  passed, 
and  every  man  presented  a  festal  appearance  with  his 
helmet  crowned,  a  bouquet  on  the  point  of  his  bayonet, 
and  flowers  in  his  button  hole.  The  Emperor's  way  was 
literally  carpeted  with  flowers,  and  his  grooms  rode  be- 
hind him  picking  them  up,  and  hanging  the  wreaths  upon 
their  saddle-bows.  Bismarck,  Moltke  and  Von  Eoon 
and  all  the  men  of  mark  during  the  war  were  similarly 
favoured. 

The  army  marched  along  at  an  astonishingly  quick 
pace.  I  was  surprised  to  see  them  walk  so  fast,  heavily 
laden  as  they  were  with  their  guns  and  knapsacks  and 
blankets,  etc.  Many  of  them  had  been  marching  a 
good  part  of  the  night  to  get  to  the  place  of  rendezvous, 
and  they  had  had  a  parade  early  in  the  morning.  A 
good  many  of  them  fainted  and  had  to  be  carried  out  of 
the  ranks,  and  eight  of  them  died !  It  was  the  hottest 
day  we  have  had  this  summer. — I  was  the  most  inter- 
ested in  the  Uhlanen.  They  were  the  greatest  terror  o* 
the  French,  and  were  light  cavalry  with  no  arms  except 


128  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

a  large  pistol  and  a  lance.  Just  below  the  head  of  the 
lance  was  a  little  Prussian  flag  attached,  and  nearly  every 
one  was  splashed  with  the  blood  of  some  poor  French- 
man. When  one  looked  at  those  terrible  spikes,  it 
seemed  a  most  dreadful  death,  and  I  don't  wonder  that 
the  French  lost  all  courage  at  the  sight  of  them.  You 
see,  being  on  horseback  and  so  lightly  armed,  the  Uh- 
lanen  could  go  about  like  lightning,  and  were  able  to 
appear  suddenly  at  the  most  unexpected  points.  As  I 
was  not  on  the  Linden  I  did  not  see  the  army  received  at 
the  Brandenburger  Gate  by  the  four  hundred  young 
ladies  dressed  in  white,  so  I  can't  give  you  any  account 
of  that.  Bismarck,  who  always  knows  what  to  do,  took 
a  handful  of  wreaths  from  his  saddle-bow,  and  flung 
them  smilingly  over  among  the  welcoming  maidens.  He 
is  a  courtly  creature.  I  was  nearly  dead  from  just  look- 
ing out  of  my  window,  and  listening  to  the  continual 
music  of  the  bands,  and  I  did  not  get  over  the  fatigue 
and  nervous  excitement  for  several  days ;  but  I  was  very 
fortunate  to  be  able  to  see  it  from  the  house,  for  many 
persons  who  had  to  sit  on  the  scaffolds  were  dreadfully 
burned,  and  were  thrown  into  a  fever  by  it.  You  see  they 
weren't  allowed  to  put  up  their  parasols,  as  that  obscured 
the  view  of  the  people  behind  them.  I  had  one  friend 
who  suffered  awfully  with  her  face,  and  did  not  sleep  for 
three  nights.  She  said  it  was  as  if  she  had  been  burnt 
by  fire,  and  the  whole  skin  peeled  off. 

July  4th. — As  usual,  it  is  over  a  week  since  I  began 
this  letter,  and  I  have  just  decided  to  start  at  once  on  a 
summer  journey  with  Mrs.  and  Miss  V.  N.,  Mr.  P.  and 
Mrs.,  Mr.  and  Miss  S.     Kullak  is  away  for  his  vaca- 


AN  ENGLISH  ARISTOCRAT.  129 

tion,  so  I  shall  lose  no  lessons.  We  shall  go  first  to 
Cologne  and  then  to  Bonn  and  Ooblentz  and  down 
the  Rhine.  Perhaps  we  shall  get  as  far  as  Heidelberg. 
We  got  one  of  those  return  tickets,  which  makes  the 
journey  very  cheap ;  only  you  are  limited  to  a  certain 
time.  We  expect  to  be  gone  until  the  1st  of  August. 
I  intend  to  walk  a  great  deal  between  the  different 
points.  Where  the  scenery  is  picturesque  we  shall 
occasionally  walk  from  station  to  station.  We  take 
no  baggage  except  a  little  bag  (which  we  sling 
over  our  backs  with  straps),  containing  a  change  of 
linen  and  a  brush  and  comb  and  tooth  brush.  We 
shall  wear  the  same  dress  all  the  time  and  have  our 
linen  washed  at  the  hotel.  I  thought  it  was  a  good 
chance  for  me,  and  as  we  shall  be  a  party  of  embryo 
artists,  we  expect  to  go  along  in  the  Bohemian  and 
happy-go-lucky  style  of  our  class.  I  think  of  writing 
a  novel  on  the  way!  Won't  it  be  romantic?  Only, 
unluckily  for  Miss  S.  and  myself,  we  shall  have  no 
adorers,  as  Mr.  P.  and  Miss  V.  G.  are  engaged,  and 
Mr.  S.  is  only  about  eighteen ! 

Just  before  the  Einzug  I  was  at  a  party  at  the 
Bancroft's,  and  was  standing  near  a  doorway  talking 
to  one  of  K.'s  class-mates  in  Harvard,  when  a  portly 
gentleman  pushed  veiy  rudely  between  us  and  stood 
there  talking  to  Mr.  Bancroft,  who  was  on  the  other 
side  of  me.  We  gazed  at  him  for  a  minute  before  we 
went  on  with  our  conversation.  Presently  the  gentle- 
man took  his  leave  and  bustled  away.  "  That  was  the 
Duke  of  Somerset,"  said  Mr.  Bancroft  to  me.  I  was 
rather  surprised,  for  I  had  just  been  thinking  to  my- 
9 


13^0  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

self,  "  What  an  unmannerly  creature  you  are  !" — I 
suppose  he  had  come  on  to  the  Einzug. 

Triumphant  Berlin,  by  the  way,  is  rather  a  contrast 
to  Paris  under  the  Commune.  Such  a  horrible  time 
as  they  have  been  having  there  I  It  is  enough  to 
make  one's  blood  run  cold  to  think  of  it.  What 
insane  barbarians  they  are — and  the  worst  of  it  is  the 
part  the  women  take  in  it.  I  saw  a  picture  of  Thiers' 
house  which  they  burnt  down.  It  was  a  magnificent 
mansion,  and  crammed  full  of  exquisite  works  of  art. 
Mr.  Bancroft  grieved  over  it,  for  he  had  dined  there, 
and  knew  what  treasures  it  contained.  He  said  it  was 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  houses  he  had  ever  beeii  in. 
— And  then  the  idea  of  pulling  down  the  column  of 
the  Place  Vendome !  Napoleon  had  built  it  from 
cannon  which  he  had  captured  in  his  great  battles  and 
melted  down,  so  that  in  a  special  manner  it  was  a 
monument  of  their  victories  over  other  nations. 
There  is  a  stupidity  about  them  which  makes  them 
perfectly  pitiable. 

[In  1848  Saint  Beuve  wrote  the  following  almost 
prophetic  words :  "  Nothing  is  swifter  to  decline  in 
crises  like  the  present  (the  Revolution  of  1848)  than 
civilization.  In  three  weeks  the  result  of  many  cen- 
turies are  lost.  Civilization,  life,  is  a  thing  learned 
and  invented.  *  *  *  *  After  years  of  tranquil- 
ity men  are  too  forgetful  of  this  truth  ;  they  come  to 
think  that  culture  is  innate,  that  it  is  the  same  thing 
as  nature.  But  in  truth  barbarism  is  but  a  few  paces 
off  and  begins  again  as  soon  as  our  hold  is  slackened."] 
—Ed. 


CHAPTER  X. 


/I  Rhine  Journey.    Frankfort.    Mainz.    Sail  down  the  Rhine 

Cologne.    Bonn.    The  Seven  Mountains.    Worms. 

Spire.    Heidelberg.    Tausig's  Death. 

RoLANDSECK  AM  Rhein,  July  14, 1871. 

You  will  be  surprised  to  get  this  letter,  dated  from 
a  little  village  on  the  Rhine,  and  I  shall  proceed  to 
tell  you  how  I  came  here,  if  the  vilest  of  vile  paper 
and  pens  will  permit.  I  wrote  a  letter  to  L.  just  be- 
fore I  left  Berlin,  in  which  I  informed  her  that  I 
meant  to  go  on  a  little  trip  with  a  party  of  friends,  as 
Berlin  in  summer  is  malarious,  und  I  felt  the  need  of 
a  change. 

Thursday  a  week  ago  we  left  Berlin  and  rode 
straight  through  to  Frankfort.  It  was  a  long  jour- 
ney, and  lasted  from  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  until 
ten  at  night.  I  got  up  at  four  in  the  morning  in  a 
most  halcyon  frame  of  mind.  In  fact,  I  felt  as  if  I  were 
going  to  get  married,  owing  to  my  putting  on  every- 
thing new  from  top  to  toe !  The  laundress  had 
made  such  ravages  upon  my  linen  that  I  found  myself 
suddenly  obliged  to  replenish  throughout,  and  conse- 
quently I  arrayed  myself  with  great  satisfaction  in 
new  stockings,  new  under-clothes,  new  flannel,  new 
skirts,  new  hat,  new  veil  and  new  shoes  to  boot!  I 
put  on  my  black  silk  short  suit,  took  my  bag  and 
(131) 


132  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

shawl,  and  sallied  to  the  station,  where  I  found  the 
others  waiting  for  me. 

It  was  a  lovely  ride  from  Berlin  to  Frankfort,  and 
having  been  shut  up  in  a  city  for  nearly  two  years,  the 
country  appeared  perfectly  charming  and  new  to  me, 
and  every  little  smiling  tuft  of  daisies  had  a  special 
significance.  I  don't  know  whether  you  stopped  at 
Frankfort  on  your  travels.  I  fell  dead  in  love  with  it, 
and  liked  it  better  than  any  part  of  Germany  I  have 
seen.  It  is  such  a  quiet  town  and  has  such  an  air  of 
elegance,  and  there  are  such  lovely  walks  all  about. 
Everything  looks  so  clean,  and  the  streets  are  so  hand- 
somely laid  out,  and  then  there  are  no  smells,  as  there 
are  in  Berlin.  The  river  flows  all  along  the  outside  of 
the  city,  and  the  promenade  along  it  is  delightful.  I 
went  to  see  the  house  where  my  adorable  Goethe  was 
bom,  and  afterward  walked  over  the  bridge  over  which 
he  used  to  go  to  school.  There  was  a  gilded  cock 
perched  upon  it,  which  he  used  to  be  very  fond  of  as 
a  child.  We  saw  his  statue,  and  then  visited  the  Mu- 
seum where  was  Danecker's  great  mastei*piece,  Ari- 
adne sitting  on  the  Panther.  It  is  the  most  ex- 
quisite thing,  and  it  is  cut  out  of  one  solid  block  of 
Carrara  marble.  Through  a  pink  curtain  a  rosy  light 
is  thrown  on  it  from  above,  which  gives  the  marble  a 
delicious  tinge.  Strange  that  he  should  have  risen  to 
such  a  poetic  conception,  and  never  done  anything 
afterwards  of  importance. 

We  went  into  a  great  room  where  life-size  pictures 
of  all  the  Emperors  of  Germany  were.  Some  of  them 
are  very  handsome  men,  and  the  Latin  mottoes  under-' 


MAINZ.  133 


iieath  are  very  funny.  One  of  them  was :  "  If  you 
don't  know  how  to  hold  your  tongue,  you'll  never  know 
the  right  place  to  speak."  I  hope  P.  will  keep  L.  well 
at  her  Latin  and  her  history,  and  teach  her  something 
about  architecture  and  mythology,  for  these  one  needs 
to  know  when  one  travels  abroad.  We  only  stayed 
one  day  in  Frankfort,  for  there  isn't  a  great  deal  to 
be  seen  there.  The  afternoon  we  spent  in  walking 
about  and  in  sitting  on  logs  by  the  river-side.  Oh, 
what  a  sweet  place  one  of  those  beautiful  villas  by  the 
swiftly  flowing  river  would  be  to  live  in ! 

We  left  Frankfort  at  seven  P.  M.,  and  rode  to 
Mainz,  which  is  only  a  ride  of  two  hours,  I  believe. 
As  we  came  over  the  railroad  bridge  into  the  town,  we 
got  our  first  glimpse  of  the  Rhine,  and  it  was  a  splendid 
sight.  Our  hotel  was  very  near  the  river,  and^s  our 
rooms  were  front  rooms,  and  three  stories  up,  we  had 
a  magnificent  view  of  it.  In  the  evening  it  was  so  fas- 
cinating to  watch  the  lights  on  the  water  and  the  boats 
plying  up  and  down,  that  it  was  long  before  we  could 
make  up  our  minds  to  leave  the  windows  and  go  to 
bed.  At  Mainz  we  saw  our  first  cathedral.  It  is  six 
hundred  years  old,  and  had  suffered  six  times  by  fire, 
but  it  was  very  fine,  notwithstanding.  We  spent  a  long 
time  studying  it  out.  Afterwards  we  visited  another 
church  and  ascended  a  tower  which  was  built  30,  B.  0. 
It^  seemed  almost  as  firm  as  the  day  it  was  finished. 
The  view  from  it  is  magnificent,  and  the  top  of  it  is 
all  overgrown  with  harebells,  golden  rod  and  grass.  It 
was  very  picturesque. 

On  Sunday  evening  we  took  the  boat  for  Cologne 


134  MUSIC-STUDY  IK  GERMANY. 

which  we  reached  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 
Oh,  that  sail  down  the  Khine  was  too  delicious  !  The 
weather  was  perfect,  and  everything  seemed  to  me  like 
a  fairy  tale.  It  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  parts  of 
the  Rhine,  and  it  was  too  lovely  to  see  those  old  castles 
in  every  degree  of  ruin,  jutting  out  over  the  steep 
rocks,  so  high  in  the  air,  and  then  the  vineyards  slop- 
ing down  the  hillsides  to  the  water's  edge.  The  whole 
lay  of  the  land  was  so  exquisite.  I  didn't  wonder  that 
it  is  so  celebrated,  and  that  so  much  has  been  written 
about  it.  A  funny  old  Englishman  came  and  sat  be- 
side me,  and  we  had  a  long  conversation,  pretty  much 
as  follows : 

Englishman. — "England  is  no  doubt  the  finest 
country  in  the  world.  You  know  the  people  there  are 
so  enormous  rich,  they  can  do  as  they  please."  "  Ah, 
indeed,"  said  I,  "have  you  travelled  much  in  Ger- 
many?" "OyesI  I've  been  all  over  Germany.  I 
come  up  the  Rhine  every  year,"  said  he.  "  It's  all  very 
pretty  when  you've  never  seen  it  before,  but  it's  noth- 
ing to  me  now."  "Have  you  been  to  Berlin?"  asked 
I.  "  0  yes,"  said  he.  *'  Shouldn't  want  to  live  there. 
Your  Prussians  are  so  confounded  arrogant.  They 
think  they're  the  greatest  people  in  the  world."  "  How 
did  you  like  Dresden  ?"  said  I,  "Stupid  hole,"  said 
he.  "Leipsic?"  "Dull  town."  "Stuttgardt?"  "Quite 
pretty."  "  Kissingen  ?"  "  'Orrible  place,  nothing  but 
fanatics ;  every  other  day  a  Saint's  day,  and  the  shops 
shut  up."  "Wiesbaden?"  "  Very  fine  place."  "Ems?" 
"Never  been  to  Hems."  "Mainz?"  "Nasty  hole." 
"Cologne?"   "Stinking  place."   "Munich?"  "Dread- 


COLOGNE  CATHEDRAL.  136 

ful  unhealthy.  They  have  fevers  there,  typhus,  etc." 
I  call  'em  fevers."  "How  do  you  like  the  Rhine 
wines  ?"  "  Don't  like  them  at  all.  It's  very  seldom 
a  man  gets  to  drink  a  decent  glass  of  wine  here.  I 
don't  drink 'em  at  all.  Hike  a  glass  of  port."  "Beer?" 
"  0,  the  German  beer  isn't  fit  to  drink.  The  English 
beer  is  the  best  in  the  world.  German  beer  is  'orrible 
bad  stuff.  Nothing  but  slops, — slops  !"  Here  I  burst 
out  laughing,  for  his  flattering  descriptions  were  too 
much  for  me.  He  gave  me  a  quizzical  look  and  said, 
"Well,  I'm  glad  I  made  you  laugh.  You're  from 
America,  aren't  you?"  "Yes,"  said  I.  "Very  un- 
healthy place,  I'm  told."  "  Indeed  ?  I  never  heard 
so,"  said  I.  "  0  yes,  veryV^  said  he.  Then  he  went 
off,  and  after  a  long  while  he  returned.  "  I've  been 
asleep,"  said  he,  "  I've  slept  two  hours  and  a  half,  all 
through  the  fine  scenery."  "  WhatF  said  I,  "  don't 
you  enjoy  it?"  ''No,  I  don't  enjoy  it  at  all."  Then 
he  told  me  he  lived  in  Rotterdam,  and  that  I  must 
come  to  Holland.  He  was  very  complaisant  over  the 
Dutch,  whom  he  said  were  "  nice,  decent  people,  like 
the  English.  There's  nothing  of  the  German  in  them," 
said  he,  "they're  quite  another  people — not  so  en- 
^Awsi-a^tic," — with  a  contemptuous  air.  We  got  out 
at  Cologne,  and  he  went  on  to  his  dear  Rotterdam. 
So  I  saw  him  no  more. 

Oh!  isn't  the  Cologne  Cathedral  magnificent?  It 
quite  took  my  breath  away  as  I  entered  it.  The  priests 
were  just  having  vespers  as  we  went  in,  and  there  was 
scarcely  a  person  in  the  cathedral  beside.  It  was  so 
solemn  and  so  touching  to  see  them  all  by  themselves 


136  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

intoning  the  prayers,  their  voices  swelling  and  falling 
in  that  vast  place.  And  when  the  superb  organ  struck 
up,  and  they  began  to  sing  a  hymn,  so  wildly  sweet, 
with  an  interlude  most  beautifully  worked  up  at  the 
end  of  each  line  by  the  organist — as  we  sat  there  under 
those  great  arches  which  soar  up  to  such  an  immense 
height,  I  felt  as  if  I  were  in  Heaven. 


Andernach,  July  16, 1871. 

I  believe  I  left  off  in  my  last  with  our  arrival  at 
Cologne,  of  which  I  saw  very  little,  as  I  was  extremely 
tired,  and  remained  at  the  hotel.  The  Cathedral  was, 
of  course,  the  main  point  of  interest,  and  that  I  saw 
thoroughly,  as  I  went  to  it  twice,  and  spent  a  number 
of  hours  each  time.  I  was  entirely  carried  away  by 
its  beauty  and  grandeur,  as  everybody  must  be.  The 
descriptions  1  had  heard  and  the  photographs  I  had  seen 
of  it  didn't  prepare  me  at  all.  The  height  of  the 
great  pile  is  one  of  the  most  astounding  things,  I 
think.  The  three  and  four  story  houses  about  it  look 
like  huts  beside  it.  Beside  the  Cathedral  I  only  saw 
the  church  where  the  eleven  thousand  virgins  are 
buried,  but  that  was  more  curious  than  beautiful. — I 
was  much  taken  down  by  the  shops  in  Cologne,  which 
I  think  much  finer  than  the  Berlin  ones,  and  saw  no 
end  of  things  in  the  windows  I  should  like  to  have 
bought.     The  cravats  alone  quite  turned  my  head ! 

We  only  spent  two  days  in  Cologne,  and  then  sailed 
for  Bonn,  which  is  but  a  very  short  distance.  Here 
we  were  in  a  hotel  directly  upon  the  river,  and  I  had 


BONN.  137 


a  sweet  little  room  quite  to  myself.  The  view  up  and 
down  the  river  was  superb,  and  we  could  see  the  Seven 
Mountains  most  beautifully.  Bonn  is  the  most  quiet, 
sleepy  little  town  you  can  imagine,  and  just  the  place 
to  study,  I  should  think.  We  saw  the  house  where 
Beethoven  was  born,  a  little  yellow,  two-story  house, 
and  then  we  visited  the  Minster,  which  is  nine  hun- 
dred years  old.  We  saw  there  a  tomb  devoted  to  the 
memory  of  the  first  architect  of  the  Cologne  Cathe- 
dral, with  his  statue  lying  upon  it.  He  had  a 
severely  beautiful  face,  and  I  could  very  well  imagine 
him  capable  of  such  a  great  conception.  We  had 
great  difficulty  in  getting  a  dinner  at  Bonn,  as,  being 
a  university  town,  the  students  gobble  up  everything. 
Finally,  we  found  a  little  restaurant  where  they  got 
us  up  one,  consisting  of  steak  and  potatoes.  After 
dinner  I  went  to  walk  with  Mr.  S.  and  we  ate  cherries 
all  the  way,  and  finally  sat  down  on  a  bench  by  the 
river's  side,  where  we  had  an  enchanting  view.  Then 
we  went  back  to  the  hotel,  and  I  went  directly  to  bed. 
It  was  delicious  to  lie  there  and  hear  the  little  waves 
washing  up  outside  my  window.  It  is  just  the  place 
for  a  honey-moon — so  out  of  the  world  as  it  seems, 
and  with  none  of  the  activity  and  bustle  of  other  cities. 
At  six  o'clock  the  next  morning  we  took  the  boat,  and 
in  about  half  an  hour  we  landed  at  a  little  town  on  the 
side  of  the  river  opposite  to  Bonn,  and  began  our  pedes- 
trian tour  through  the  Seven  Mountains,  of  which  we 
ascended  and  descended  four.  They  were  all  very  steep 
and  difficult  to  climb,  and  it  reminded  me  of  my  trip  to 
Mount  Mansfield,  years  ago,  only  then  we  had  horses. 


138  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

We  spent  the  night  on  one  of  them,  the  Lowen-berg 
(Lion-mountam).  This  was  a  funny  experience,  as  all 
we  five  ladies  had  to  sleep  in  one  room,  and  in  one  great 
bed  of  straw  made  up  on  the  floor.  The  fleas  bit  us  all 
night,  so  we  did  not  sleep  too  much.  I  mentioned  the 
little  fact  to  the  seiTant  next  day,  to  which  she  replied, 
"  Yes,  when  you  are,  n't  used  to  fleas  and  bed-bugs,  it  is 
hard  to  sleep !"  I  agreed  with  her  perfectly ! — Our  walk 
was  enchanting  in  spite  of  the  difficulty  of  the  ascent, 
and  of  the  fact  that  all  of  us  had  satchels  slung  over  our 
shoulders,  and  a  shawl  and  umbrella  to  carry,  which 
made  locomotion  rather  difficult.  We  were  in  the  sylvan 
shades,  following  delicious  footpaths  scented  with  flowers, 
and  with  the  birds  singing  and  trilling  as  loud  as  they 
could  over  our  heads. 

It  was  heavenly  on  the  Lbwenberg,  for  the  view  was 
glorious  on  every  side,  and  it  seemed  as  if  we  were  on  the 
highest  peak  in  the  universe.  I  sat  for  hours  looking 
over  the  lovely  country  and  following  the  meanderings  of 
the  Rhine.  The  atmospheric  effects  produced  by  the 
sunset  were  wonderful,  and  when  it  got  to  be  nine  o'clock 
we  saw  the  lights  twinkle  up  one  by  one  from  the  dis- 
tant villages  below  like  little  earth-stars — reflections  of 
the  heavenly  ones  above.  The  last  mountain  we  ascended 
was  the  Drachenfels  (Dragon-rock),  and  a  fearful  pull 
it  was.  The  three  others  had  been  so  easy,  comparatively, 
that  we  none  of  us  knew  what  we  were  in  for.  Soon 
found  out,  though !  It  was  like  trying  to  go  up  a  waU, 
it  was  so  steep.  But  when  we  got  up  we  were  rewarded, 
for  the  view  was  superb,  and  there  was  an  interesting 
old  Roman  ruin  up  there.     We  wandered  all  about,  and 


WORMS.  131 


got  an  excellent  dinner,  and  then  came  down  late  in  the 
afternoon,  took  a  row  boat  and  rowed  across  the  Rhme 
to  Rolandseck — a  fashionable  watering  place,  and  eg 
charming  as  German  towns  have  a  way  of  being. 


GoTHA,  July  27,  1871. 

Since  I  wrote  you  from  Andemach  I  have  been  trav- 
elling steadily.  The  whole  party  except  Mrs.  V.  N.  and 
myself  made  a  pedestrian  tour  along  the  Rhine  from 
Rolandseck  to  Bingen,  a  distance  of  sixty  miles.  1 
started  to  walk,  but  when  I  had  gone  fifteen  miles  I  gave 
out,  and  was  glad  to  take  the  boat.  Mrs.  V.  N.  was  an 
invalid  and  couldn't  walk,  so  I  took  charge  of  her,  and 
we  would  travel  on  together.  When  we  got  to  the  sta- 
tion where  we  had  agreed  to  wait  for  the  others,  I  would 
seat  her  somewhere  with  the  bags  of  the  party  piled  up 
around  her,  and  then  I  would  make  a  sortie,  look  at  the 
hotels,  and  engage  our  rooms. 

We  saw  the  Rhine  from  Cologne  to  Worms  very  thor- 
oughly— for  we  kept  stopping  all  along.  It  is  truly  mag- 
nificent, and  nothing  can  be  more  interesting  and  pic- 
turesque than  those  old  ruined  castles  which  look  as  if 
they  had  grown  there.  Bingen  is  the  sweetest  place,  and 
just  the  spot  to  spend  a  summer.  We  travelled  from 
there  to  Worms,  which  is  a  dehghtful  old  city.  We 
were  there  only  an  hour  or  two,  but  the  walk  from  the 
boat  to  the  cars  was  through  the  prettiest  part  of  it,  I 
should  judge,  and  was  very  romantic,  through  winding 
walks  overshadowed  with  trees.  We  saw  that  great  Luther 
monument  there,  which  is  most  imposing.     The  exterior 


140  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

of  the  Cathedral  is  splendid,  and  in  quite  another  style 
of  architecture  from  the  Cologne  Cathedral.  From 
Worms  we  went  to  Spire,  in  order  to  see  the  Cathedral 
there,  which  is  superb,  and  veiy  celebrated.  It  was 
founded  in  1030  by  Conrad  the  Second,  as  a  burial  place 
for  himself  and  his  successors.  It  has  no  stained  win- 
dows at  all,  even  in  the  chancel,  which  surprised  me,  but 
the  frescoes  and  the  whole  interior  colouring  are  gor- 
geous in  the  extreme.  It  is  in  the  Romanesque  style  of 
architecture,  and  is  so  entirely  different  from  the  Cologne 
Cathedral  that  it  was  very  interesting,  but  there's  noth- 
ing equal  to  the  Gothic,  after  all. 

From  Spire  we  went  to  Heidelberg.  I  was 
enchanted  with  Heidelberg.  It  is  the  most  romantic 
and  beautiful  place  I  was  ever  in.  The  Castle  is  the 
prince  of  ruins.  I  had  made  up  my  mind  all  along 
that  I  was  going  to  enjoy  myself  at  Heidelberg,  for 
my  friend  Dr.  S.  was  studying  there,  and  I  knew  I 
should  have  him  to  go  about  with.  So  I  had  been 
urging  the  party  to  go  there  from  the  first.  As  soon 
as  we  arrived,  off  I  went  to  find  him,  which  I  soon 
accomplished.  He  was  very  glad  to  see  me,  and  put 
himself  at  once  at  my  disposal.  You  know  the  S.'s 
used  to  live  at  Heidelberg,  among  other  places,  so  he 
knows  it  all  by  heart.  After  dinner  we  all  went  up  to 
the  Castle,  of  course.  I  was  very  sorry  that  I  had 
never  read  Hyperion.  We  had  to  ascend  a  long  hill 
before  we  got  to  it,  but  the  weather  was  perfect,  so  we 
didn't  mind.  It  is  so  high  up  that  the  view  of  the 
town  and  of  the  Neckar  winding  through  it,  with  the 
wooded  hills  on  the  opposite  shore,  is  panoramic. 


HEIDELBERG  CASTLE.  141 

The  Castle  itself  is  an  enormous  i*uin,  and  very 
richly  ornamented.  Ivy  two  hundred  years  old  climbs 
over  it  in  great  luxuriance.  We  passed  through  a  gate- 
way over  which  stand  two  stone  knights  which  are 
said  to  change  places  with  each  other  at  midnight, 
and  there  are  all  sorts  of  charming  stories  like  that 
connected  with  the  place.  We  saw  a  beautifully 
carved  stone  archway  which  was  put  up  in  a  single 
night,  in  honour  of  somebody's  birthday,  and  a  monu- 
ment with  an  inscription  over  it  stood  in  one  corner 
of  the  grounds,  stating  that  here  had  stood  some  distin- 
guished personage  (I  always  forget  all  the  names, 
unluckily,  but  "theprinciple  remains  the  same"),  when 
the  Castle  was  being  besieged  by  the  French.  Two 
balls  came  from  opposite  directions,  passed  close  by 
him,  and  struck  against  each  other,  miraculously  leav- 
ing him  unharmed ! 

After  we  had  walked  around  the  outside  of  the  Cas- 
tle sufficiently  we  went  inside.  It  took  us  a  long  time 
to  go  over  it,  it  was  so  large.  We  saw  the  stone  dun- 
geon, which  was  called  the  "Never  Empty,"  because 
somebody  was  always  confined  there — a  dreadful  hole, 
and  it  must  have  been  in  perfect  darkness — and  we 
saw  the  great  Heidelberg  cask  which  had  a  scaffolding 
on  the  top  of  it  big  enough  to  dance  a  quadrille  on. 
But  the  finest  of  everything  was  the  ascending  of  the 
tower.  Just  as  we'got  to  the  top  of  it,  and  had  begun  to 
take  in  the  magnificent  scenery,  an  orchestra  at  a  lit- 
tle distance  below  struck  up  Wagner's  "  Kaiser  March." 
It  was  the  one  touch  which  was  needed  to  make  the 
ensemble  perfect.     On  one  side  the  landscape  lay  far 


142  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

below  us,  with  the  silver  river  winding  through  it; 
on  the  other  the  hills  rose  behind  the  Castle  to  an 
immense  height,  and  with  the  greatest  boldness  of 
outline.  The  tops  were  thickly  wooded,  and  lower 
down  the  trees  were  beautifully  grouped,  and  the  vel- 
vety turf  rolled  and  swelled  to  the  foot  of  the  Castle. 
The  sun  was  just  setting  in  a  clear  sky,  and  cast  long 
shadows  athwart  the  scene,  and  I  thought  I  had  never 
seen  anything  more  striking.  Then  to  hear  Wagner's 
Kaiser  March  by  a  well-trained  orchestra  come  soar- 
ing up,  made  a  combination  such  as  one  gets  perhaps 
not  more  than  once  in  a  life-time. 

The  march  is  superb,  so  pompous  and  majestic, 
and  with  delicious  melodies  occasionally  interwoven 
through  it.  Wagner's  melodies  are  so  heavily  and  in- 
toxicatingly  sweet,  that  they  are  almost  narcotic.  His 
music  excites  a  set  of  emotions  that  no  other  music 
does,  and  he  is  a  great  original.  It  has  the  power  of 
expressing  longing  and  aspiration  to  a  wonderful  de- 
gree, and  it  always  seems  to  me  as  if  two  impulses  were 
continually  trying  to  get  the  mastery.  The  one  is  the 
embodiment  of  all  those  vague  yearnings  of  the  soul 
to  burst  its  prison  house,  and  the  other  is  the  cradling 
of  the  body  in  the  lap  of  pleasure.  I  always  feel  as 
if  I  should  like  to  swoon  away  when  I  hear  his  com- 
positions. Then  his  harmonies  are  so  strangely  se- 
ductive, so  complicated,  so  "  grossartig,"  as  the  Ger- 
mans say,  and  so  peculiar !  Oh,  I  have  an  immeii^se 
admiration  for  him  !  He  thinks  that  music  is  not  the 
impersonation  of  an  idea,  but  that  it  is  the  idea. 

But  to  return  to  the  Castle. — We  stayed  up  in  the 


NICOLAI  RUBINSTEIN.  143 

tower  for  some  time,  and  then  we  made  the  tour  of  the 
interior.     Afterwards  we  walked  and  sat  about  until 
all  the  party  thought  it  was  time  to  go  back  to  the  ho- 
tel.    Dr.  S.  and  I  thought  we  would  stay  up  there  to 
supper.     So  we  went  where  the  orchestra  was  playing, 
which  was  in  an  enclosed  space  near  the  Castle.     We 
took  our  seats  at  a  little  table  in  the  open  air,  and 
ordered  a  delicious  little  supper,  also 
"  A  bottle  of  wine 
To  make  us  shine  " 
in  conversation  .'^and  so  glided  by  the  most  ideal  even- 
ing, as  far  as  surroundings  go,  that  I  ever  spent. 

In  our  hotel  at  Heidelberg  I  kept  hearing  a  man 
play  splendidly  in  the  room  below  us,  and  every  time 
we  passed  his  door  it  was  open,  and  we  could  partly 
see  the  interior  of  a  charming  room  with  a  grand  piano 
in  it,  at  which  he  was  seated.  A  pretty  woman  was 
always  lying  back  in  the  corner  of  the  sofa  listening  to 
him,  apparently.  The  presence  of  a  large  wax  doll  in- 
dicated that  there  must  be  a  child  about,  and  the  per- 
fume of  flowers  stole  through  the  open  doorway.  My 
interest  was  at  once  excited  in  these  people,  and  I  said 
to  myself  as  I  heard  this  gentleman  practice  every  day, 
"  This  must  be  some  artist  passing  the  summer  here 
and  getting  up  his  winter  programme."  Accordingly, 
on  Sunday  afternoon  when  he  was  playing  beautifully, 
I  roused  myself  up  and  enquired  of  a  servant  who  he 
was.  "  Nicolai  Rubinstein,  from  St.  Petersburg,"  re- 
plied she.  He  is  the  brother  of  the  great  Anton  Eu- 
binstein,  and  is  nearly  as  fine  a  pianist.  I  know  a 
scholar  of  Tausig's  who  had  studied  with  him,  and 
Tausig  had  a  high  opinion  of  him. 


144  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

Oh,  isn't  it  dreadful?  When  we  were  at  Bingen  we 
saw  the  news  of  Tausig's  death  in  the  paper !  He 
died  at  Leipsic,  on  the  17th  of  July,  of  typhus  fever, 
brought  on  by  over-taxing  his  musical  memory.  It 
was  a  dreadful  blow  to  me,  as  you  may  imagine,  and 
when  I  think  of  his  wonderful  playing  silenced  for- 
ever, and  comparatively  in  the  beginning  of  his  career, 
I  cannot  get  reconciled  to  it.  If  you  could  have  heard 
those  matchlessly  trained  fingers  of  his,  you  would  be 
able  to  sympathize  with  me  on  the  subject.  I  had 
counted  so  on  hearing  him  next  winter,  for  he  gave  no 
concerts  in  Berlin  last  winter.  He  was  only  thirty-one 
years  old ! 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Eisenach.    Qotha.     Erfurt.    Andernach.    Weimar.    Tausig 

Berlin,  Auguit  15, 1871. 
Well,  here  I  am  back  in  smelly  old  Berlin  !  I  really 
hated  to  leave  Heidelberg,  it  was  such  a  paradisiacal 
spot,  but  we  saw  so  much  that  was  beautiful  after- 
wards, that  my  impression  of  it  has  become  a  little 
dimmed.  From  Heidelberg  we  went  to  Eisenach,  its 
rival  in  a  different  way,  for  here  we  went  over  the  Wart- 
burg — the  Castle  famous  for  having  been  the  dwelling 
of  the  holy  St.  Elizabeth,  and  where  Luther  translated 
the  Bible  and  spent  ten  months  of  his  life  disguised 
as  a  knight.  I  saw  his  room,  a  bare  and  comfortless 
hole,  but  with  a  splendid  view  from  the  windows.  The 
Castle  is  in  good  repair,  and  is  a  noble  pile.  I  suppose  the 
Duke  of  Weimar  spends  some  time  there  evei7  summer, 
as  it  looks  as  if  it  were  lived  in.  It  is  endlessly  inter- 
esting. There  is  a  lovely  little  chapel  in  it  where  Lu- 
ther used  to  preach,  with  everything  left  in  just  as  it 
was  in  his  time — a  little  gem.  The  Wartburg  is  on  a 
very  high  hill,  and  the  views  from  it  are  superb. 
Among  other  things  to  be  seen  from  it  is  the  Venus- 
berg,  which  is  the  mountain  Wagner  has  introduced 
in  his  famous  opera  of  Tannhauser.  He  was  so  car- 
ried away  by  the  Wartburg  when  he  concealed  himself 
near  it,  as  he  was  being  pursued  by  the  government  to 
be  arrested  as  a  revolutionary,  twenty  years  ago,  that 
10  (145) 


146  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

he  never  rested  until  he  had  united  the  legends  of  St. 
Elizabeth  and  of  the  Venusberg  in  his  opera.  Liszt, 
also,  wrote  an  oratorio  on  St.  Elizabeth  as  his  tribute 
to  the  Wartburg. 

From  Eisenach  we  went  to  Gotha,  a  lovely  place,  all 
shaded  with  trees,  and  surmounted  by  a  very  imposing 
castle,  with  two  immense  towers.  It  is  an  enormous 
edifice,  and  is  surrounded  by  a  magnificent  park, 
through  which  goes  the  slowly  winding  river.  I  be- 
lieve that  Gotha  belongs  to  .the  Duke  of  Saxe-Coburg, 
brother  of  the  Queen  of  England,  or  something.  At  all 
events,  in  the  middle  of  this  river  is  an  island  where 
the  ducal  family  is  buried,  and  it  is  so  thickly  planted 
with  trees  whose  boughs  hang  over  the  water,  that 
their  graves  are  quite  shrouded  from  the  vulgar  eye. 
Pretty  idea !  The  river  laps  lazily  against  the  grassy 
slope  which  covers  the  princely  ones,  and  the  wind 
rushing  through  the  trees,  sings  their  dirge. 

From  Gotha  we  went  to  Erfurt,  where  we  only  spent 
one  night,  in  order  to  see  the  Cathedral.  Erfurt  is  an 
Undine  of  a  place,  full  of  running  streams  and  bridges 
and  mills  roaring  all  about  you.  I  saw  one  street 
with  a  brook  rippling  down  the  very  middle  of  it  at  a 
most  rattling  pace,  and  at  every  little  distance  two  or 
three  stepping  stones  by  which  to  cross  it.  Just  think 
how  fascinating  for  children !  I  longed  to  stay  and 
have  a  good  play  there  myself.  The  Erfurt  Cathe- 
dral is  much  smaller  than  those  of  Spire  and  Cologne, 
but  the  exterior  is  wonderfully  beautiful.  The  tran- 
sept is  a  masterpiece,  and  has  fifteen  enormous  win- 
dows of  rich  old  stained  glass  going  round  it.     The 


A  BEAUTIFUL  SERVICE.  147 

nave  did  not  please  me  so  well,  because  in  addition  to 
its  not  being  very  rich,  the  side  aisles  were  of  equal 
height  with  the  main  body  of  the  Cathedral,  and  were 
not  sufficiently  marked  off  from  it  to  prevent  the 
roof's  looking  like  a  ceiling.  I  believe  the  side  aisles 
were  of  equal  height  with  the  main  aisle  in  the  Col- 
ogne Cathedral,  but  the  archways  and  pillars  cut  them 
off  more,  so  that  it  had  a  different  effect. — I  am  more 
interested  in  cathedrals  than  anything  else,  and  should 
like  to  travel  all  over  Europe  and  see  all  the  different 
ones.  There  is  a  lovely  old  church  at  Andernach, 
Koman  Catholic,  as  most  of  the  churches  on  the  Rhine 
are.  I  went  there  to  church  one  Sunday  morning,  and 
stayed  through  the  service.  They  had  the  most  pow- 
erful church  music  I've  ever  heard.  There  was  an  ex- 
cellent boy  choir  which  sang  in  unison  and  led  the  con- 
gregation, every  person  of  which  joined  in.  The  organ 
was  fine,  as  was  also  the  organist,  and  the  singing  was 
so  universal  that  the  old  church  walls  rang  again. 
The  priest  preached  an  excellent  sermon,  too — the  best 
I  have  heard  in  Germany. 


Beblin,  Auguit  31, 1871. 
Germany  is  a  most  lovely  countiy,  and  perfectly 
delicious  to  travel  through.  I  believe  I  have  described 
all  the  places  we  went  to  excepting  Weimar.  Weimar 
is  delightful,  and  so  interesting,  because  Goethe  and 
Schiller,  Wieland  and  Herder  lived  there,  and  every- 
thing is  connected  with  them,  and  especially  with  the 
first  two.    There  are  many  fine  statues  in  the  little 


148  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

city,  and  a  delicious  great  park  along  the  river  which 
was  laid  out  under  Goethe's  superintendence. — One 
group  of  Goethe  and  Schiller  standing  together  in 
front  of  the  theatre  is  magnificent.  One  hardly  knows 
which  to  admire  the  most,  Goethe,  with  his  courtly 
mein  and  commanding  features,  or  Schiller,  with  his 
extreme  ideality  and  his  head  a  little  thrown  back  as 
if  to  take  in  inspiration  direct  from  the  sky.  It  is 
a  most  striking  conception. 

The  palace  of  the  Grand  Duke  of  VYeimar  is  the 
principal  "  show  "  of  the  place.  It  is  filled  with  the 
richest  works  of  art,  and  is  beautifully  frescoed  in 
rooms  devoted  each  to  a  particular  author,  and  repre- 
senting his  most  celebrated  works.  There  is  the 
Goethe  room,  and  the  Wieland  room,  etc.  The  Wie- 
land  room  is  the  most  charming  thing.  The  fres- 
coes on  the  walls  are  all  illustrative  of  his  "  Oberon," 
which  is  his  most  celebrated  work,  and  one  picture 
represents  what  happened  when  Oberon  blew  his  horn. 
You  must  know  that  when  Oberon  blows  his  horn 
everybody  is  obliged  to  dance.  So  in  this  picture  he 
is  represented  blowing  it  in  a  convent,  and  all  the  fat 
friars  and  nuns  are  dancing  away  like  mad.  They 
look  so  serious,  and  as  if  they  didn't  want  to  do  it  at 
all,  but  their  feet  will  fly  up  in  the  air  in  spite  of  them. 
The  nuns'  slippers  scarcely  stick  on,  and  it  looks  so 
absurd  !  I  was  as  highly  amused  at  it  as  the  mischiev- 
ous Oberon  himself  must  have  been,  so  delicately  has 
the  artist  touched  it  off.  There  was  another  design 
representing  a  band  of  nymphs  dancing  in  the  sky, 
band  in  hand  in  the  twilight,  and  it  was  the  most 


THE  DUCAL  PALACE.  149 

graceful  thing ! — Their  delicate  little  bare  feet  with 
every  pretty  turn  a  foot  could  have,  their  clothes  and 
hair  streaming  in  the  breeze,  and  every  attitude  so 
airy.  It  was  lovely!  The  Goethe  frescoes  were  by 
another  painter,  and  not  so  fine,  but  I  prefer  pictures 
to  frescoes.  Only  one  suite  of  the  ducal  rooms  was 
frescoed.  The  others  had  superb  pictures  by  the  old 
masters,  many  of  them  originals. 

The  Duke  is  an  artist  himself,  and  designs  a  great 
many  pretty  things.  -  For  instance,  he  designed  the 
large  candelabra  which  stood  on  each  side  of  one  of 
the  doorways, — Cupid  peeping  through  a  wreath  of 
thistles  and  nettles.  He  was  kneeling  on  one  knee, 
and  pushing  them  aside  with  each  hand.  It  was  all 
done  in  gilt  metal  and  made  a  very  dainty  conceit, 
beside  being  a  good  illustration  of  the  pains  of  love ! 
I  think  the  Duke  probably  designed  some  of  the  pic- 
ture frames,  for  they  were  peculiarly  rich  and  artistic ; 
for  instance,  the  frames  of  the  original  cartoons  of 
Leonardo  da  Vinci's  Last  Supper  were  entirely  com- 
posed of  the  leaves  and  flowers  of  the  calla  lily.  The 
leaves  lapped  one  over  the  other,  and  here  and  there 
a  lily  was  laid  between.  The  flowers  were  done  in  a 
different  coloured  gilding  from  the  leaves.  They 
were  very  beautiful.  The  pictures  were  not  all  hung 
together,  so  as  to  confuse  your  eye,  but  here  a  gem 
and  there  a  gem — and  0,  I  saw  the  most  bewitching 
little  statue  there  that  ever  I  saw  in  my  life !  The 
subject  was  "Little  Eed Riding  Hood,"  and  it  stood  in 
the  corner  of  one  of  the  great  salons.  It  was  about 
two  feet  high,  and  represented  the  most  fascinating 


150  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

little  girl  you  can  imagine,  clothed  in  the  wolfs  skin, 
which  hung  down  behind  and  had  formed  the  little 
hood.  The  child  herself  was  quite  indescribable — the 
daintiest  little  creature,  with  the  most  captivating  ex- 
pression of  innocence  and  roguishness.  If  she  looked 
like  that  I  should  have  followed  the  wolfs  example 
and  eaten  her  up  I  It  was  really  a  perfect  little  pearl 
of  a  statue.  I  would  give  anything  to  possess  it.  In 
short,  I  wish  the  Duke  of  Weimar  were  my  intimate 
friend,  for  he  must  be  a  man  worth  knowing.  Kow, 
if  I  could  only  play  like  Liszt ! — I  don't  wonder  Liszt 
spends  so  much  of  his  time  in  Weimar.  I  am  getting 
perfectly  crazy  to  hear  him,  by  the  way,  for  everybody 
says  there  is  nobody  in  the  world  like  him,  and 
that  he  is  the  only  artist  who  combines  everything. 
He  does  not  play  in  public  any  more,  but  Weitzmann 
says  that  he  is  amiability  itself,  and  that  it  would  prob- 
ably not  be  difficult  for  me  to  get  an  opportunity  to 
hear  him  in  private. 

In  the  palace  I  also  saw  the  little  boudoir  of  the 
Duchess.  It  was  all  panelled  in  white  satin,  and  the  fur- 
niture was  of  the  richest  white  brocaded  silk.  The  win- 
dow frames  were  of  malachite,  and  one  looked  out 
through  the  single  great  plate  of  glass  on  to  the  beau- 
tiful park,  and  the  winding  river  spanned  by  a  bridge 
which  suggests  immediately  to  your  mind,  "Walk  over 
me  into  the  Garden  of  Paradise,  for  I  was  made  for 
your  express  benefit !"  The  park  lies  on  each  side  of 
this  little  river  Ilm,  and  Goethe's  exquisite  taste  has 
given  it  more  a  look  of  nature  than  of  art.  It  seems 
as  if  you  were  walking  in  a  delicious  meadow,  the 


GOETHE'S  SUMMER  HOUSE.  151 


trees  being  sometimes  grouped  together,  sometimes 
growing  thickly  along  the  water's  edge.  You  go 
in  and  out  of  sunshine  and  shadow,  and  here  and 
there  are  dusky  little  retreats,  and,  to  borrow 
Goldsmith's  elegant  style,  —  "the  winding  walks 
assume  a  natural  sylvage."  Some  distance  up  the 
river,  on  the  side  of  a  gentle  hill,  was  a  small  house  in 
the  woods  where  Goethe  used  to  live  in  summer. 
Here  he  slept  sometimes,  and  farther  up  the  hill 
was  a  summer  house  where  he  took  his  coffee  after 
dinner.  To  the  left  of  this  summer  house  he  had  had 
made  a  long  alley-way  or  vista  of  trees  whose  tops  met 
overhead  and  formed  a  leafy  ceiling.  It  was  like  a 
cloister,  and  here  he  could  pace  up  and  down  and  muse. 
It  was  a  delightful  idea.  To  the  right  of  the  summer 
house  was  a  small  garden,  and  beyond  that  was  a  path 
which  wound  through  the  wood  down  to  the  path  below. 
In  one  of  the  rocks  there  Goethe  had  had  a  little  poem 
cut.  I  was  sorry  afterward  that  I  hadn't  copied  it,  it 
was  so  pretty. — But  it  was  such  a  charming  place  to 
read  and  study,  and  it  seemed  to  give  me  a  better 
impression  of  him  than  anything  else. 

I  saw  a  piano  in  the  Duke's  palace  upon  which 
Beethoven  had  played.  It  was  a  funny  little  instru- 
ment of  about  five  octaves,  but  it  was  so  wheezy  with 
age  that  there  wasn't  much  tone  to  be  got  out  of  it. 
After  we  had  finished  looking  at  the  palace,  we  went 
over  to  see  the  ducal  library.  Here  I  saw  a  superb 
bust  of  Goethe  as  a  young  man.  It  was  so  handsome 
that  it  spurns  description.  He  must  have  been  a 
perfect  Apollo.     I  also  saw  a  likeness  of  him  painted 


162  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

upon  a  cup  by  some  great  artist,  for  which  he  sat 
thirty-four  times  !  The  old  librarian,  who  had  known 
•Goethe,  said  that  it  was  exactly  like  him,  and  the  min- 
iature painting  was  so  wonderful  that  when  you  looked 
at  it  with  a  magnifying  glass  it  was  only  finer  and 
more  accurate  instead  of  less  so !  There  was  also  a 
most  noble  bust  of  the  composer  Gliick.  The  face 
was  all  scarred  with  small-pox,  so  that  the  cast  must 
must  have  been  moulded  from  his  features  after  death, 
but  I  never  saw  such  a  living,  animated,  likeness  in 
marble.  It  looked  as  if  it  were  going  to  speak  to  you. 
There  was  a  funny  toy  there,  nearly  three  hundred 
years  old.  It  was  a  drummer  boy,  with  a  little  baby 
strapped  on  his  back.  The  librarian  wound  him  up, 
and  then  he  beat  his  drum  lustily,  rolled  his  eyes  from 
side  to  side,  and  wagged  his  head,  while  the  baby 
on  his  back  hopped  up  and  down.  Whenever  little 
children  see  it,  it  scares  them,  and  they  begin  to  cry. 
It  had  on  a  red  flannel  coat,  and  hasn't  had  a  new  one 
since  it  was  made. — "  Nearly  three  hundred  years  old, 
and  never  had  a  new  coat,"  is  worse  than  when  C. 
P.  bought  himself  a  trunk,  and  went  round  the 
house  saying,  "Twenty-seven  years  old,  and  been  in 
twenty-three  states  of  the  Union,  and  never  had  a 
new  trunk  before !" 

Goethe's  house  is  not  exhibited,  which  I  think 
highly  inexcusable  in  the  Goethe  family,  but  Schiller's 
is.  So  we  saw  that,  and  what  a  contrast  it  was  to  the 
■ducal  palace  ! — You  go  to  a  small  yellow  house  on  one 
of  the  principal  streets,  enter  a  little  hall  by  a  little 
door,  go  up  two  flights  of  a  little  stair-case,  and  in  the 


SCHILLER'S  HOME.  153 

very  low-ceilinged  third  story  was  Schiller's  home — 
"home  "  I  say,  and  the  whole  of  it,  so  please  take  it  in ! 
The  first  room  you  enter  is  a  sort  of  ante-room  where 
photographs  are  now  sold.  The  next  room  was  the 
parlour,  and  of  late  years  it  has  been  comfortably  fur- 
nished by  the  ladies  of  Weimar  in  the  usual  cheap 
German  taste.  The  third  room  was  Schiller's  study, 
with  an  infinitesimal  fourth  room,  or  large  closet, 
opening  from  it,  which  was  his  sleeping  apart- 
ment. The  study  is  precisely  as  he  left  it,  and 
nothing  could  be  more  bald  and  bare.  No  car- 
pet on  the  floor,  the  three  windows  slightly  fes- 
tooned at  the  top  with  a  single  breadth  of  Turkey  red, 
his  own  portrait  and  a  few  wretched  prints  on  the  walls 
— in  short,  such  a  sordid  habitation  for  such  a  soaring 
nature  as  seemed  almost  incredible  !  His  writing  table, 
with  a  globe,  inkstand,  and  pens  upon  it,  stands  at  one 
window,  and  his  wife's  tiny  little  piano  with  her  guitar 
on  top,  is  against  the  wall.  There  are  two  or  three 
chairs,  and  a  wash-stand  with  a  minute  washing  appa- 
ratus. In  one  corner  is  the  tiny  unpainted  wooden 
bedstead  on  which  he  died ;  a  bed  not  meant  to  stretch 
out  in,  but  to  lie,  as  Germans  do,  half  reclining,  and 
so  low,  narrow,  plain  and  mean  that  I  never  saw  any- 
thing like  it.  In  it  and  hanging  on  the  wall  over  it 
are  wreaths  which  leading  German  actresses  have 
brought  there  as  votive  offerings  to  their  great  national 
dramatist,  their  white  satin  ribbons  yellowing  by  time. 
At  the  foot  of  the  stair-case  as  you  go  out,  you  see  the 
little  walled-up  garden  at  the  back  of  the  house  where 
the  poet  loved  to  sit. 


154  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

After  getting  through  with  the  abodes  of  the  living, 
we  visited  the  ducal  vault  where  Goethe  and  Schiller 
are  buried.  It  is  the  crypt  of  a  sort  of  temple  built 
in  the  old  secluded  cemetery  in  Weimar,  and  in  it 
all  the  coffins  are  laid  in  rows  on  supporters.  Goethe 
and  Schiller  lie  apart  from  the  others,  side  by  side, 
near  the  foot  of  the  stair-case  leading  down  into 
the  crypt.  Their  coffins,  especially  Schiller's,  are  cov- 
ered with  wreaths  and  bouquets  brought  by  strangers 
and  laid  there.  Schiller's  had  on  it  a  garland  of  silver 
leaves  presented  by  the  women  of  Hamburg,  and  an- 
other of  leaves  of  green  gauze  or  crape,  on  every  one 
of  which  was  worked  in  gold  thread  the  name  of  one 
of  his  plays.  A  great  actress  had  made  it  herself  as 
her  tribute  to  his  genius.  From  all  I  observe,  I  should 
judge  that  the  German  people  love  Schiller  much  more 
than  they  do  Goethe.  The  dukes  and  duchesses  lie 
farther  back  in  the  vault  in  their  red  velvet  coffins, 
quite  unnoticed.  So  much  better  is  genius  than  rank ! 
Hummel  is  buried  also  in  the  cemetery,  which  is  the 
most  beautiful  I  ever  saw — not  stiff  and  "  arranged  " 
like  ours,  but  so  natural !  with  over-grown  foot-paths, 
and  with  much  fewer  and  simpler  grave-stones  and 
monuments,  and  many  more  vines  and  flowers  and 
roses  creeping  over  the  graves.  We  went  to  Hummel's 
grave,  and  had  I  been  Goethe  and  Schiller  I  should 
much  rather  have  been  buried  out  of  doors  like  him, 
amid  this  sweet  half -wild,  half -gentle  nature,  than  in 
that  dismal  vault. 

Speaking  of  Hummel  reminds  me  of  Tausig's  death. 
Was  it  not  terrible  that  he  should  have  died  so  young ! 


TAUSIQ'S  PLAYING.  155 

Such  an  enormous  artist  as  he  was !  I  cannot  get 
reconciled  to  it  at  all,  and  he  played  only  twice  in 
Berlin  last  winter. 

He  was  a  strange  little  soul — a  perfect  misanthrope. 
Nobody  knew  him  intimately.  He  lived  all  the  last 
part  of  his  life  in  the  strictest  retirement,  a  prey  to 
deep  melancholy.  He  was  taken  ill  at  Leipsic,  whither 
he  had  gone  to  meet  Liszt.  Until  the  ninth  day  they 
had  hopes  of  his  recovery,  but  in  the  night  he  had  a 
relapse,  and  died  the  tenth  day,  very  easily  at  the  last. 
His  remains  were  brought  to  Berlin  and  he  was  buried 
here.  Everything  was  done  to  save  him,  and  he  had 
the  most  celebrated  physicians,  but  it  was  useless.  So 
my  last  hope  of  lessons  from  him  again  is  at  an  end, 
«^you  see!  I  never  expect  to  hear  such  piano-playing 
again.  It  was  as  impossible  for  him  to  strike  one  false 
note  as  it  is  for  other  people  to  strike  right  ones.  He 
was  absolutely  infallible.  The  papers  all  tell  a  story 
about  his  playing  a  piece  one  time  before  his  friends, 
from  the  notes.  The  music  fell  upon  the  keys,  but 
Tausig  didn't  allow  himself  to  be  at  all  disturbed,  and 
went  on  playing  through  the  paper,  his  fingers  piercing 
it  and  grasping  the  proper  chords,  until  some  one 
rushed  to  his  aid  and  set  the  notes  up  again.  Oh,  he  was 
a  wonder,  and  it  is  a  tragic  loss  to  Art  that  he  is  dead. 
He  was  such  a  true  artist,  his  standard  was  so  immeas- 
urably high,  and  he  had  such  a  proud  contempt  for 
anything  approaching  clap-trap,  or  what  he  called 
Spectakel.  I  have  seen  him  execute  the  most  gigantic 
difficulties  without  permitting  himself  a  sign  of  effort 
beyond  an  almost  imperceptible  compression  of  one 


156  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

corner  of  his  mouth. — And  then  his  touch !  Never 
shall  I  forget  it ! — that  rush  of  silver  over  the  keys. 
However,  he  entirely  overstrained  himself,  and  his 
whole  nervous  system  was  completely  shattered  long 
before  his  illness.  He  said  last  winter  that  the  very 
idea  of  playing  in  public  was  unbearable  to  him,  and 
after  he  had  announced  in  the  papers  that  he  would 
give  four  concerts,  he  recalled  the  announcement  on  the 
plea  of  ill  health.  Then  he  thought  he  would  go  to 
Italy  and  spend  the  winter.  But  when  he  got  as  far 
as  Naples,  he  said  to  himself,  ^^  N'ein,  hier  hleibst  du 
nicht  (No,  you  won't  stay  here) ;"  and  back  he  came 
to  Berlin.  He  doesn't  seem  to  have  known  what  he 
wanted,  himself ;  his  was  an  uneasy,  tormented, 
capricious  spirit,  at  enmity  with  the  world.  Perhaps 
his  marriage  had  something  to  do  with  it.  His  wife 
was  a  beautiful  artist,  too,  and  they  thought  the  world 
of  each  other,  yet  they  couldn't  live  together.  But 
Tausig's  whole  life  was  a  mystery,  and  his  reserve  was 
so  complete  that  nobody  could  pierce  it.  If  I  had  only 
been  at  the  point  in  music  two  years  ago  that  I  am 
now,  I  could  have  gone  at  once  into  his  class.  His 
scholars  were  most  of  them  artists  already,  or  had  got 
to  that  point  where  they  had  pretty  well  mastered  the 
technique.  A  number  of  them  came  out  last  winter, 
and  the  little  Timanoff  played  duets  with  Kubinstein 
for  two  pianos,  at  St.  Petersburg. 

Since  my  return  I  have  gone  into  the  first  class  in 
Kullak's  conservatory,  instead  of  taking  private  lessons 
of  him.  I  think  it  will  be  of  use  to  me  to  hear  his 
best  pupils  play. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


Dinner.Party  and  Reception  at  Mr.  Bancroft's.     Auction  at 

Tausig's  House.    A  German  Christmas. 

The  Joachims. 

Berlin,  October  2, 1871. 

This  week]I  have  been  to  a  dinner-party  at  the  Ban- 
croft's. There  were  several  eminent  Germans  there, 
and  I  was  taken  out  by  BQtticher,  the  Herr  who  has 
arranged  all  the  casts  in  the  Museum,  and  who  knows 
everything  about  Art.  He  couldn't  speak  a  word  of 
English,  so  we  Germaned  it.  We  talked  about  Sap- 
pho all  through  dinner,  and  he  gave  me  several  details 
about  that  young  woman  which  I  did  not  know  before. 
As  C.  used  to  say,  we  had  one  of  those  dinners  "  such 
as  you  read  about  in  the  Arabian  Nights,"  topping  off 
with  a  glass  of  my  favourite  Tokay,  which,  I  regret  to 
say,  I  so  prolonged  the  pleasure  of  drinking,  that 
finally  the  signal  was  given  to  adjourn  to  the  drawing- 
room,  and  I  was  obliged  to  leave  my  glass  standing 
half  full,  to  be  swallowed  by  the  waiter  as  soon  as  my 
back  was  turned.     Sad,  but  true  ! 

On  another  evening,  at  a  Bancroft  reception,  I 
talked  with  a  Miss  R.,  who  was  charming.  She  is 
twenty-two  or  three,  I  should  think,  very  pretty 
and  extremely  elegant,  and  with  the  most  deli- 
cious way  of  speaking  you  can  imagine.  Such  soft- 
ness of  manner  and  such  a  delightfully  pitched  voice, 

(157) 


158  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

and  then  along  with  this  perfect  repose,  such  a 
vivid  way  of  describing  things !  I  was  immensely 
taken  with  her,  and  was  delighted  to  have  her  for  a 
countrywoman.  She  gave  me  a  wonderful  account 
of  the  Island  of  Java.  I  had  a  lot  of  questions  to  ask 
her,  for  you  remember  how  persistently  I  read  that 
book  by  a  naturalist  (Wallace)  who  went  to  Java  in 
search  of  the  Bird  of  Paradise.  Miss  R.  is  so  ex- 
tremely intelligent,  and  yet  so  unassuming ;  and  then 
this  high-bred  manner. — I  did  not  have  time  to  hear 
her  talk  half  enough,  and,  unfortunately,  her  party 
went  away  the  next  day. 

The  other  day  was  an  auction  in  poor  little  Tausig's 
house,  and  all  his  furniture  was  sold.  It  was  very 
handsome,  all  of  solid  oak,  beautifully  carved.  He 
had  spent  five  thousand  thalers  on  it.  His  wardrobe 
was  sold,  too,  and  I  don't  know  how  many  pairs  of  his 
little  boots  and  shoes  were  there,  his  patent  leather 
concert  boots  among  others.  His  little  velvet  coat 
that  he  used  to  wear  went  with  the  rest.  I  saw  it 
lying  on  a  chair.  I  came  home  quite  ill,  and  was 
laid  up  two  days.  It  was  the  fatigue,  I  suppose,  and 
miserable  reflections.  I  wanted  to  buy  a  picture,  but 
they  were  all  sold  in  a  lot.  He  had  excellent  ones  of 
all  the  great  composers,  down  to  Liszt  and  Wagner, 
hanging  over  'his  piano  in  the  room  where  he  always 
played.  Kullak  deplores  Tausig's  death  very  deeply. 
He  had  visited  him  in  Leipsic  two  days  before  he  was 
taken  ill,  and  said  no  one  would  have  dreamed  that 
Tausig  was  going  to  die,  he  looked  so  well.  Kullak 
said  Tausig  was  one  of  the  three  or  four  great  special 


AMERICAN   COMFORT.  159 

pianists.     "  Who  ynll  interpret  to  us  so  again  ?"  said 
he ;  and  I  echoed,  sadly  enough,  "  Who,  indeed  ?" 

Kullak,  by  the  way,  is  a  \Tond.evtvi\\y  finished  teacher. 
He  is  a  great  friend  of  Liszt's,  and  Liszt  has  taught 
him  a  good  many  things.  I  doubt,  however,  how  M. 
will  fare  with  him,  if  she  is  only  going  to  be  here  a 
year.  My  experience  is  that  it  takes  fully  a  year  to 
get  started  under  a  first  class  master.  These  great 
teachers  won't  take  a  pupil  raw  from  America,  still 
less  trouble  themselves  with  a  scholar  who  cannot  im- 
mediately comprehend.  I  have  written  her  to-day  a 
three-sheet  letter  in  which  I  have  set  forth  the  disad- 
vantages of  Germany  in  a  sufficiently  forcible  manner 
to  prevent  her  feeling  disappointed  if  she  still  insists 
upon  the  journey.  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
I  am  no  ci'iterion  as  to  other  people's  impressions. 
Unless  people  have  an  enthusiasm  for  art  I  don't  see 
the  least  use  in  their  coming  abroad.  If  they  cannot 
appreciate  the  culture  of  Europe,  they  are  much  better 
off  in  America.  There  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  as  to 
the  comfort  of  every -day  life,  we  are  a  long  way  ahead 
of  every  nation,  unless  perhaps  the  English,  whom, 
however,  I  have  not  seen.      ^ 


Berlin,  Deceniber  26, 1871. 
To-day  is  Christmas-day,  and  I  have  thought  much 
of  you  all  at  home,  and  have  wondered  if  you've  been 
having  an  apathetic  time  as  usual.  I  think  we  often 
spend  Christmas  in  a  most  shocking  fashion  in  Amer- 
ica, and  I  mean  to  revolutionize  all  that  when  I  get 


160  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

back.  So  long  a  time  in  Grermany  has  taught  me  bet- 
ter. Here  it  is  a  season  of  universal  joy,  and  every- 
body enters  into  it.  Last  night  we  had  a  Christmas 
tree  at  the  S.'s,  as  we  always  do.  We  went  there  at 
half  past  six,  and  it  was  the  prettiest  thing  to  see  in 
every  house,  nearly,  a  tree  just  lighted,  or  in  process 
of  being  so.  As  a  separate  family  lives  on  each  floor, 
often  in  one  house  would  be  three  trees,  one  above  the 
other,  in  the  front  rooms.  The  curtains  are  always 
drawn  up,  to  give  the  passers-by  the  benefit  of  it.  They 
don't  make  a  fearful  undertaking  of  having  a  Christ- 
mas tree  here,  as  we  do  in  America,  and  so  they  are 
attainable  by  everybody.  The  tree  is  small,  to  begin 
with,  and  nothing  is  put  on  it  except  the  tapers  and 
bonbons.  It  is  fixed  on  a  small  stand  in  the  centre  of 
a  large  square  table  covered  with  a  white  cloth,  and 
each  person's  presents  are  arranged  in  a  separate  pile 
around  it.  The  tree  is  only  lighted  for  the  sake  of 
beauty,  and  for  the  air  of  festivity  it  throws  over  the 
thing. — After  a  crisp  walk  in  the  moonlight  (which 
I  performed  in  the  style  of  '^  Johnny-look-up-in-the 
air,"  for  I  was  engaged  in  staring  into  house-windows, 
so  far  as  it  was  practicable),  we  sat  down  to  enjoy  a 
cup  of  tea  and  a  piece  of  cake.  I  had  just  begun  my 
second  cup,  when.  Presto  !  the  parlour  doors  flew  open, 
and  there  stood  the  little  green  tree,  blossoming  out 
into  lights,  and  throwing  its  gleams  over  the  well-laden 
table.  There  was  a  general  scramble  and  a  search 
for  one's  own  pile,  succeeded  by  deep  silence  and  sus- 
pense while  we  opened  the  papers.  Such  a  hand  shak- 
ing and  embracing  and  thanking  as  followed  !  conclud- 


PRAU  JOACHIM.  ira 

ing  with  the  satisfactory  conviction  that  we  each  had 
"  just  what  we  wanted."  Germans  do  not  despise  the 
utilitarian  in  their  Christmas  gifts,  as  we  do,  but,  be- 
tween these  and  their  birthday  offerings,  expect  to  be 
set  up  for  the  rest  of  the  year  in  the  necessaries  of  life 
as  well  as  in  its  superfluities.  Presents  of  stockings, 
under-clothes,  dresses,  handkerchiefs,  soaps — nothing 
comes  amiss.  And  every  one  micst  give  to  every  one 
else.    That  is  law. 

I  have  just  heard  a  young  artist  from  Vienna  who 
made  a  great  impression  on  me.  His  name  is  Ignaz 
Brtlhl.  He  is  quite  exceptional,  and  has  not  only  a 
brilliant  technique,  but  also  a  peculiar  and  beautiful 
conception. — But  the  best  concert  I  have  heard  this 
season  was  one  given  by  Clara  Schumann  a  week  ago 
last  Monday.  She  was  assisted  by  Joachim  and  his 
wife^  and  that  galaxy  is  indeed  unequalled.  Frau 
Joachim  sings  deliciously.  Not  that  her  voice  is  so 
remarkable.  You  hear  such  voices  all  the  time.  But 
she  manages  it  consummately,  and  sings  German  songs 
as  no  one  but  a  German  could  sing  them.  Indeed  I 
never  heard  any  woman  approach  her  in  unobtrusive 
yet  perfect  art.  She  does  not  take  you  by  storm,  and 
when  I  first  came  here  I  did  not  think  much  of  her, 
but  every  time  I  hear  her  I  am  struck  with  how  exqui- 
site it  is.  Every  word  takes  on  a  meaning,  and  on  this 
account  I  think  you  have  to  understand  the  language 
before  you  can  realize  the  beauty  of  it.  One  of  her 
songs  was  Schumann's  "  Spring  Song,"  with  that  rapid 
agitato  accompaniment,  you  know. — She  came  out  and 
started  off  in  it  with  a  half  breath  and  a  tremor  just 
11 


i62  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

like  a  bird  fluttering  up  out  of  its  nest,  and  then  went 
up  on  a  portamento  with  such  abandon  ! — like  the  bird 
soaring  off  in  its  flight.  I  never  shail  forget  that 
effect !  Of  course  it  carried  you  completely  away. 
Beside  singing  so  admirably  she  is  a  beauty — a 
sort  of  baby  beauty — and  when  she  comes  out  in  a 
pale  pink  silk,  contrasting  with  her  dark  hair  and 
revealing  her  imperial  neck  and  arms,  she  is  ravishing. 
I've  been  told  she  wasn't  anything  remarkable  when 
Joachim  married  her.  No  doubt  dwelling  with  such 
a  genius  has  developed  her.  They  say  that  Joachim 
has  had  such  a  happy  life  that  he  wants  to  live  for- 
ever !  He  certainly  does  overtop  everything.  On  this 
occasion  he  played  Beethoven's  great  Kreutzer  Sonata 
for  violin  and  piano,  with  Clara  Schumann,  and  I 
thought  it  the  most  magnificent  performance  I  ever 
heard  !  I  perfectly  adore  Joachim,  and  consider  him 
the  wonder  of  the  age.  It  is  simple  ecstasy  to  listen 
to  him. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Visit  to  Dresden.    The  Wiecks.    Von  Biilow.    A  Child  Prod- 
igy.    Grantzow,  the  Dancer. 

Beblin,  February  10, 1872. 
A  week  ago  last  Monday  I  went  to  Dresden  with 
J.  L.  to  visit  B.  H.  We  got  there  at  about  five 
in  the  afternoon,  and  were  met  at  the  station  by 
B.'s  maid,  who  conducted  us  straightway  to  their 
house  in  Christian  Strasse.  B.  and  Mrs.  H.  received 
us  with  the  greatest  cordiality,  and  we  had  a  splen- 
did time.  I  came  home  only  the  day  before  yes- 
terday, and  J.  is  still  there.  The  H.'s  have  a  charming 
lodging,  and  Mrs.  H.  is  a  capital  housekeeper.  The 
cuisine  was  excellent,  and  you  can  imagine  how  I 
enjoyed  an  American  breakfast  once  more,  after  noth- 
ing but  "rolls  and  coffee"  for  two  years.  B.  did 
everything  in  her  power  to  amuse  us,  and  she  is  the 
soul  of  amiability.  She  kept  inviting  people  to  meet 
us,  and  had  several  tea-parties,  and  when  we  had  no 
company  she  took  us  to  the  theatre  or  the  opera.  She 
invited  Marie  Wieck  (the  sister  of  Clara  Schumann) 
to  tea  one  night.  I  was  very  glad  to  meet  her,  for  she 
is  an  exquisite  artist  herself,  and  plays  in  Clara  Schu- 
mann's style,  though  her  conception  is  not  so  remark- 
able. Her  touch  is  perfect.  At  B.'s  request  she 
tried  to  play  for  us,  but  the  action  of  B.'s  piano 
did  not  suit  her,  and  she  presently  got  up,  saying  that 

(163) 


164  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

she  could  do  nothing  on  that  instrument,  but  that 
if  we  would  come  to  her^  she  would  play  for  us  with 
pleasure. 

I  was  in  high  glee  at  that  proposal,  for  I  was  very 
anxious  to  see  the  famous  Wieck,  the  trainer  of  so 
many  generations  of  musicians.  Fraulein  Wieck 
appointed  Saturday  evening,  and  we  accordingly  went. 
B.  had  instructed  us  how  to  act,  for  the  old  man  is 
quite  a  character,  and  has  to  be  dealt  with  after  his  own 
fashion.  She  said  we  must  walk  in  (having  first  laid  off 
our  things)  as  if  we  had  been  members  of  the  family 
all  our  lives,  and  say,  "  Good-evening,  Papa  Wieck," — 
(everybody  calls  him  Papa).  Then  we  were  to  seat  our- 
selves, and  if  we  had  some  knitting  or  sewing  with  us 
it  would  be  well.  At  any  rate  we  must  have  the  appar- 
ent intention  of  spending  several  hours,  for  nothing 
prcrvokes  him  so  as  to  have  people  come  in  simply  to 
call.  "What !"  he  will  say,  "  do  you  expect  to  know  a 
celebrated  man  like  me  in  half  an  hour?"  then  (very 
sarcastically),  "perhaps  you  want  my  autograph  !"  He 
hates  to  give  his  autograph. 

Well,  we  went  through  the  prescribed  programme. 
We  were  ushered  into  a  large  room,  much  longer  than 
it  was  broad.  At  either  end  stood  a  grand  piano. 
Otherwise  the  room  was  furnished  with  the  greatest 
simplicity.  My  impression  is  that  the  floor  was  a  plain 
yellow  painted  one,  with  a  rug  or  two  here  and  there. 
A  few  portraits  and  bas-reliefs  hung  upon  the  walls. 
The  pianos  were  of  course  fine.  Frau  Wieck  and 
"  Papa  "  received  us  graciously.  We  began  by  taking 
tea,  but   soon  the  old    man  became  impatient,  and 


CLARA.  SCHUMANN'S  SISTER.  165 

said,  "Come!  the  ladies  wish  to  perform  (vortragen) 
something  before  me,  and  if  we  don't  begin  we  shan't 
accomplish  anything."  He  lives  entirely  in  music, 
and  has  a  class  of  girls  whom  he  instructs  every  even- 
ing for  nothing.  Five  of  these  young  girls  were  there. 
He  is  very  deaf,  but  strange  to  say,  he  is  as 
sensitive  as  ever  to  every  musical  sound,  and  the 
same  is  the  case  with  Clara  Schumann.  Fraulein 
Wieck  then  opened  the  ball.  She  is  about  forty,  I 
should  think,  and  a  stout,  phlegmatic-looking  woman. 
However,  she  played  superbly,  and  her  touch  is  one  of 
the  most  delicious  possible.  After  hearing  her,  one  is 
not  surprised  that  the  Wiecks  think  nobody  can  teach 
touch  but  themselves.  She  began  with  a  nocturne  by 
Chopin,  in  F  major.  I  forgot  to  say  that  the  old  Herr 
sits  in  his  chair  with  the  air  of  being  on  a  throne, 
and  announces  beforehand  each  piece  that  is  to  be 
plalyed,  following  it  with  some  comment :  e.  g.,  "This 
nocturne  I  allowed  my  daughter  Clara  to  play  in  Berlin 
forty  years  ago,  and  afterward  the  principal  newspaper 
in  criticising  her  performance,  remarked :  '  This  young 
girl  seems  to  have  much  talent ;  it  is  only  a  pity  that 
she  is  in  the  hands  of  a  father  whose  head  seems 
stuck  full  of  queer  new-fangled  notions,' — so  new  was 
Chopin  to  the  public  at  that  time."  That  is  the  way 
he  goes  on. 

After  Fraulein  Wieck  had  finished  the  nocturne,  I 
asked  for  something  by  Bach,  which  I'm  told  she  plays 
remarkably.  She  said  that  at  the  moment  she  had. 
nothing  in  practice  by  Bach,  but  she  would  play  me  a 
gigue  by  a  composer  of  Bach's  time, — Haesler,  I  think 


166  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

she  said,  but  cannot  remember,  as  it  was  a  name 
entirely  unknown  to  me.  It  was  very  brilliant,  and 
she  executed  it  beautifully.  Afterward  she  played  the 
last  movement  of  Beethoven's  Sonata  in  E  flat  major, 
but  I  wasn't  particularly  struck  with  her  conception 
of  that.  Then  we  had  a  pause,  and  she  urged  me  to 
play.  I  refused,  for  as  I  had  been  in  Dresden  a  week 
and  had  not  practiced,  I  did  not  wish  to  sit  down  and 
not  do  myself  justice.  My  hand  is  so  stiff,  that  as 
Tausig  said  of  himself  (though  of  him  I  can  hardly 
believe  it),  "When  I  haven't  practiced  for  fourteen  days 
I  can't  do  anything."  The  old  Herr  then  said, "  Now 
we'll  have  something  else ;"  and  got  up  and  went  to 
the  piano,  and  called  the  young  girls.  He  made  three 
of  them  sing,  one  after  the  other,  and  they  sang  very 
charmingly  indeed.  One  of  them  he  made  improvise 
a  cadenza,  and  a  second  sang  the  alto  to  it  without 
accompaniment.  He  was  very  proud  of  that.  He  exer- 
cises his  pupils  in  all  sorts  of  ways,  trains  them  to  sing 
any  given  tone,  and  "  to  skip  up  and  down  the  ladder," 
as  they  call  the  scale. 

After  the  master  had  finished  with  the  singing, 
Fraulein  Wieck  played  three  more  pieces,  one  of  which 
was  an  exquisite  arrangement  by  Liszt  of  that  song  by 
Schumann,  "Du  meine  Seele."  She  ended  with  a 
gavotte  by  Gliick,  or  as  Papa  Wieck  would  say,  "  This 
is  a  gavotte  from  one  of  Gltlck's  operas,  arranged  by 
Brahms  for  the  piano.  To  the  superficial  observer  the 
second  movement  will  appear  very  easy,  but  in  mj/ 
opinion  it  is  a  very  hard  task  to  hit  it  exactly."  I  hap- 
pened toknow  just  how  the  thing  ought  to  be  played, 


AN  ORDEAL.  167 


for  I  had  heard  it  three  times  from  Clara  Schumann 
herself.  Fraulein  Wieck  didn't  please  me  at  all  in  it, 
for  she  took  the  second  movement  twice  as  quickly  as 
the  first.  "Your  sister  plays  the  second  movement 
much  slower,"  said  I.  " So?^'  said  she,  "I've  never 
heard  it  from  her."  She  then  asked,  "  So  slow?"  play- 
ing it  slower.  "Still  slower?"  said  she,  beginning  a 
third  time,  at  my  continual  disapproval.  "  Streng  im 
Tempo  (in  strict  time)",  said  I,  nodding  my  head 
oracularly.  "  VdterchenJ^  called  she  to  the  old  Herr, 
"  Miss  Fay  says  that  Clara  plays  the  second  movement 
so  slow,"  showing  him.  I  don't  know  whether  this 
correction  made  an  impression,  but  he  was  then  deter- 
mined that  I  should  play,  and  on  my  continued  refusal 
he  finally  said  that  he  found  it  very  strange  that  a  young 
lady  who  had  studied  more  than  two  years  in  Tausig's 
and  Kullak's  conservatories  shouldn't  have  one  piece 
that  she  could  play  before  people."  This  little  fling 
provoked  me,  so  up  I  jumped,  and  saying  to  my- 
self, "Kopf  in  die  Hohe^  Brust  heraus^ — vorwdrts!" 
(one  of  the  military  orders  here),  I  marched  to  the  piano 
and  played  the  fugue  at  the  end  of  Beethoven's  A  flat 
Sonata,  Op.  110.  They  all  sat  round  the  room  as  still 
as  so  many  statues  while  I  played,  and  you  cannot 
imagine  how  dreadfully  nervous  I  was.  I  thought 
fifty  times  1  would  have  to  stop,  for,  like  all  fugues,  it 
is  such  a  piece  that  if  you  once  get  out  you  never  can 
get  in  again,  and  Btllow  himself  got  mixed  up  on  the 
last  part  of  it  the  other  night  in  his  concert.  But 
I  got  well  through,  notwithstanding,  and  the  old 
master  was  good  enough  to  commend  me  warmly. 


168  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

He  told  me  I  must  have  studied  a  great  deal,  and 
asked  me  if  I  hadn't  played  a  great  many  Etuden,  I 
informed  him  in  polite  German  "  He'd  better  believe 
I  had !" 

I  should  like  to  study  with  the  Wiecks  in  my  vaca- 
tion next  summer  if  they  would  take  me.  Perhaps  I 
may.  They  are  considered  somewhat  old-fashioned 
in  their  style,  and  I  shouldn't  wish  to  exchange  Kul- 
lak  for  them,  but  they  are  such  veterans  that  one 
could  not  help  getting  many  valuable  ideas  from 
them.  Papa  Wieck  used  to  be  Billow's  master  before 
he  went  to  Liszt. 

Did  I  tell  you  how  carried  away  with  Bulow  I  was? 
He  is  magnificent,  and  just  between  Kubinstein  and 
Tausig.  I  am  going  to  hear  him  again  on  Sat- 
urday, and  then  I'll  write  you  my  full  opinion  about 
him.  He  is  famous  for  his  playing  of  Beethoven,  and 
I  wish  you  could  have  heard  the  Moonlight  Sonata 
from  him.  One  thing  he  does  which  is  entirely  pecu- 
liar to  himself.  He  runs  all  the  movements  of  a  so- 
nata together,  instead  of  pausing  between.  It  pleased 
me  very  much,  as  it  gives  a  unity  of  effect,  and  seems 
to  make  each  movement  beget  the  succeeding  one. , 


liEBLiN,  May  30, 1872. 
I  wish  L.  were  here  studying  piano  with  Kullak's 
son.  He  has  one  little  fairy  of  a  scholar  ten  years  old. 
Her  name  is  Adele  aus  der  Ohe — (isn't  that  an  old 
knightly  name  ?) — and  it  is  the  most  astonishing  thing 
to  hear  that  child  play !     I  heard  her  play  a  concerto 


"  ART  IS  LONG."  169 


of  Beethoven's  the  other  day  with  orchestral  accom- 
paniment and  a  great  cadenza  by  Moscheles,  abso- 
lutely peyfectly.  She  never  missed  a  note  the  whole 
way  through.  I  suppose  she  will  become,  like  Mehlig, 
a  great  artist.  But  perhaps,  like  her,  she  won't  have 
a  great  conception,  but  will  do  everything  mechani- 
cally. One  never  can  tell  how  these  child-prodigies 
will  turn  out. — Please  don't  form  any  exalted  ideas  of 
my  playing !  I'm  a  pretty  stupid  girl,  and  go  forward 
slowly.  I  never  expect  to  play  as  Miss  Mehlig  does. 
If  I  can  ever  get  up  to  Topp,  I  shall  be  satisfied.  You 
wouldn't  believe  how  long  it  takes  to  get  to  be  a  vir- 
tuoso unless  you  tried  it.  Mehlig,  you  know,  studied 
steadily  for  ten  years,  under  the  best  of  teaching  all 
the  time,  and  she  had  probably  more  talent  to  start 
with  than  I  have.  Miss  V.  and  Mr.  Gr.  have  been 
here  five  years  studying  steadily,  and  they  are  no 
farther  than  I  am  now.  Not  so  far.  It  makes  all  the 
difference  in  the  world  what  kind  of  hand  and  wrist  a 
person  has.  Mine,  you  know,  were  pretty  stiff,  and 
then  it  is  a  gi*eat  disadvantage  to  begin  studying  after 
one  is  grown  up.  One  ought  to  be  learning  while  the 
hand  is  forming. 

I  am  just  now  learning  that  A  minor  concerto  of 
Schumann's  that  Topp  played  at  the  Handel  and 
Haydn  Festival  in  Boston.  The  cadenza  is  tough,  I 
can  tell  you.  That  is  the  worst  of  these  concertos. 
There  is  always  a  grand  cadenza  where  you  must 
play  all  alone  and  "  make  a  splurge."  I  don't  know 
how  it  feels  to  be  left  all  at  once  without  any  support 
from  the  orchestra.    It  is  bad  enough  when  KuUak 


170  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

lies  back  in  his  chair  and  ceases  accompanying  me. 
He  plays  with  me  on  two  pianos,  and  I  get  so  excited 
that  my  wrists  tremble.  He  is  a  magnificent  pianist, 
and  his  technique  is  perfect.  There's  nothing  he 
can't  do.  Like  all  artists,  he  is  as  capricious  and  ex- 
asperating as  he  can  be,  and,  as  the  Germans  say,  he 
is  "  ein  Mai  im  Himmel  und  das  ndchste  Mai  im  Kel- 
ler (one  time  in  heaven  and  the  next  time  in  the  cel- 
lar) !"  He  has  a  deep  rooted  prejudice  against  Amer- 
icans, and  never  loses  an  opportunity  to  make  a 
mean  remark  about  them,  and  though  he  has  some 
remarkably  gifted  ones  among  his  scholars,  he  always 
insists  upon  it  that  the  Americans  have  no  real  talent. 
As  far  as  I  know  anything  about  his  conservatorium 
just  now,  his  most  talented  scholars  are  Americans. 
There  is  a  young  fellow  named  Sherwood,  who  is  only 
seventeen  years  old,  and  he  not  only  plays  splendidly 
but  composes  beautifully,  also.  In  my  own  class  Miss 
B.  and  I  are  far  ahead  of  all  the  others.  Kullak  will 
praise  us  very  enthusiastically,  and  then  when  some 
one  plays  particularly  badly  in  the  class  he  will  say  to 
them,  "  Why,  FrSulein,  you  play  exactly  as  if  you 
came  from  America."  It  makes  Miss  B.  and  me  so 
indignant  thafwe  don't  know  what  to  do.  Of  course  we 
can't  say  anything,  for  he  addresses  this  remark  in  a 
lofty  way  to  the  whole  class.  Miss  V.  couldn't 
bear  Kullak,  and  the  other  day,  when  she  and  Mr.  G. 
were  taking  leave  of  him  to  go  to  America,  she  let  him 
see  it.  He  said  to  her,  "And  when  shall  I  see  you 
again  ?"  "iVever,"  exclaimed  she  !  We  have  only  one 
way  of  revenging  ourselves,  and  that  is  when  he  gives 


THE   BALLET  OF  "  ESMERALDA."  171 

us  the  choice  of  taking  one  of  his  compositions  or  a 
piece  by  some  one  else,  always  to  take  the  other  per- 
son's. For  instance,  he  said  to  me,  "  Fraulein,  you 
can  take  Schumann's  concerto  or  my  concerto."  I 
immediately  got  Schumann's. 

The  other  night  I  went  to  see  a  great  ballet-dancer. 
Her  name  is  FrSulein  Grantzow,  and  she  is  the  court 
dancer  at  St.  Petersburg,  where  I've  heard  that  the 
ballet  surpasses  everything  of  the  kind  in  the  world. 
This  danseuse  is  a  wonder,  and  they  say  there  has  never 
been  such  dancing  since  the  days  of  Fanny  Ellsler. 
She  has  the  ligure  of  a  Venus,  and  the  most  expressive 
face  imaginable.  When  she  dances,  it  is  not  only 
dancing,  but  a  complete  representation  of  character, 
for  she  plays  a  r6le  by  her  motions  just  the  same  as 
if  she  were  an  actress.  I  have  seen  many  a  ballet,  but 
I  never  conceived  what  an  art  dancing  is  before.  I 
saw  her  in  "  Esmeralda,"  a  ballet  which  is  arranged 
from  Victor  Hugo's  romance  and  modified  for  the 
stage.  FrSulein  Grantzow  took  the  part  of  Esmer- 
alda. In  the  first  act  a  man  is  condemned  to  death, 
but  is  pardoned  on  condition  that  one  of  the  women 
present  will  promise  to  marry  him.  The  women,  rep- 
resented by  about  fifty  ballet  dancers,  come  up  one 
after  the  other,  contemplate  the  poor  victim,  pirouette 
round  him,  and  reject  him  in  turn  with  a  gesture  of 
contempt.  At  last  Esmeralda  (a  gypsy)  comes  danc- 
ing along,  asks  what  is  the  matter,  and  on  being  told, 
has  compassion  on  the  poor  wretch,  and  promises  to 
marry  him  in  order  to  save  him  from  his  fate. 

When  the  time  came  for  Grantzow  to  appear,  the 


172  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

crowd  of  dancers  suddenly  divided,  and  she  bounded 
out  from  the  back  of  the  stage.  Such  an  appari- 
tion as  she  was !  In  the  first  place  her  toilettes  sur- 
passed everything,  and  she  appeared  in  a  fresh  dress 
in  every  act.  In  this  first  one  she  had  on  a  most  daz- 
zling shade  of  green  gauze  for  her  skirt.  From  her 
waist  fell  a  golden  net-work,  like  a  cestus,  with  littli 
golden  tassels  all  round.  She  wore  a  little  scarlet 
satin  jacket  all  fringed  with  gold  coins,  and  a  broad 
golden  belt,  pointed  in  front,  clasped  her  waist.  On 
her  head  was  a  tiny  scarlet  cap,  also  fringed  with  coins, 
and  she  had  some  golden  bangles  round  her  neck.  In 
her  hand  was  a  tambourine  from  which  depended  four 
knots  of  coloured  ribbons  with  long  ends.  Shaking 
her  tambourine  high  in  the  air,  out  she  sprang  like  a 
panther,  made  one  magnificent  circuit  all  round  the 
stage,  and  after  executing  an  immensely  difficult  pas 
with  perfect  ease,  she  suddenly  posed  to  the  audience 
in  the  most  ravishing  and  impossible  attitude  and  with 
the  most  captivating  grace  conceivable.  Anything  like 
her  elan,  her  aplomb,  I  never  saw.  Such  a  daring  crea- 
ture !  Well,  I  cannot  tell  you  all  the  things  she  did. 
She  is  a  perfect  Terpsichorean  genius.  All  through 
the  first  act  she  danced  very  slowly,  merely  to  show 
her  wonderful  grace,  and  the  beauty  and  originality  of 
her  positions.  She  had  a  way  of  folding  her  arms  over 
her  breast  and  dancing  with  a  dreamy  step  that  was 
quite  different  from  anybody  else,  and  it  produced  an 
entrancing  effect.  Through  the  second  and  third  acts 
she  made  a  regular  crescendo,  just  to  display  her  tech- 
nique and  show  what  she  could  do.    All  the  othei 


AN  IDEAL  DANSEUSE.  173 

dancers  seemed  like  blocks  of  wood  in  comparison  with 
her. — FrSulein  Grantzow  is  said  to  be  between  thirty- 
five  and  thirty-eight  years  old.  As  the  papers  said, 
her  art  shows  the  perfection  that  only  maturity  can 
give.  The  men  are  all  crazy  over  her,  as  you  may  im- 
agine, and  she  was  showered  with  bouquets  as  large  as 
the  top  of  a  barrel.  The  play  of  her  features  was  as 
extraordinary  as  the  play  of  her  muscles.  Her  whole 
being  seemed  to  be  the  soul  of  motion. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


A  Rising  Organist.     Kullak.     Von  Billow's  Playing. 

A  Princely  Funeral.    Willielmj's  Concert. 

A  Court  Beauty. 

Bkklin,  July  1, 1872. 
Since  I  have  been  here  X.  has  gradually  devel- 
oped into  a  great  organ  player,  and  I  fancy  he  is  now 
one  of  the  first  organ  virtuosi  in  the  world.  His 
musical  activity  is  immense,  and  I  don't  doubt  he  will 
be  one  of  the  great  musical  authorities  here  by  the 
time  he  is  a  few  years  older.  He  is  a  good-hearted 
little  demon,  the  incarnation  of  German  dirt  and 
good  humour,  and  he  pretends  to  be  desperately  de- 
voted to  me.  Last  Sunday  he  was  at  M.'s  and  went 
home  with  us  afterward.  Generally  I  go  in  front 
with  A.  or  Herr  J.  and  let  X.  give  his  arm  to  M., 
but  this  time  I  accorded  him  the  honour  of  taking 
it  myself.  He  is  about  a  foot  shorter  than  I  am,  but 
he  trotted  along  by  my  side  in  a  state  of  high  satisf  ac^ 
tion,  and  asked  me  what  he  should  play  at  this 
concert.  I  told  him  he  might  play  the  G  Minor 
Prelude  and  Fugue,  as  I  had  just  taken  it,  "hut^^  said 
I,  "  mind  you  play  it  well,  for  I  shall  study  it  very 
hard  during  the  next  fortnight,  and  I  shall  know  if 
you  strike  one  false  note.  FU  allow  you  six  faults, 
but  if  you  make  one  more  I'll  beat  you."  This 
amused  him  highly,  but  he  said,   *^  It  is  a  very  com- 

(174) 


AN  ORGAN  VIRTUOSO.  176 

plicated  fugue,  and  it  isn't  so  easy  to  play  it  perfectly, 
with  all  the  pedal  passages.  What  will  you  do  for  me 
if  I  come  off  without  making  one  fault?"  I  told  him 
there  was  plenty  of  time  to  think  about  that,  and  I 
didn't  believe  he  could.  I  have  no  doubt  that  he  will 
play  it  magnificently,  but  I  love  to  plague  him.  I  wish 
that  his  department  were  secular  rather  than  church 
music,  for  if  he  were  only  a  conductor  of  an  orchestra, 
or  something  of  that  sort,  he  could  give  me  many  a  lift. 
He  doesn't  dare  play  the  piano  any  more  since  I  played 
to  him  a  few  times.  He  used  nearly  to  kill  me  with  his 
extemporizations,  for  he  has  no  memory,  and  so  he 
always  had  to  extemporize.  I  generally  went  off  into 
a  secret  convulsion  of  laughter  when  he  went  bang ! 
bang !  Donner  and  Blitz  ! — splaying  all  over  the  key- 
board. It  was  the  funniest  thing  I  ever  heard,  and  when 
I  heard  him  burst  forth  in  such  grand  style  on  the  or- 
gan, I  was  perfectly  amazed,  and  couldn't  reconcile 
it  with  his  piano  playing  at  all.  He  is  a  great  reader, 
of  course,  and  can  transpose  at  sight,  and  all  that  sort 
of  thing.  I've  known  him  to  play  accompaniments  at 
sight  in  a  great  concert  in  the  Dom  and  transpose 
them  at  the  same  time  ! 

July  6. — You  ask  me  why  I  gave  up  going  to  the 
Wiecks  in  Dresden  this  summer. — Because  they  make 
everybody  begin  at  the  very  beginning  of  their  system 
and  go  through  it  before  they  give  them  a  piece,  and 
at  my  stage  of  progress  that  would  be  losing  time. 
They  think  nobody  can  teach  touch  but  themselves, 
but  Kullak  is  a  much  greater  musician,  and  I  should 
not  be  willing  to  exchange  him  for  FrSulein  Wieck, 


176  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

who  does  not  begin  to  equal  him  in  reputation.  Much 
as  Kullak  enrages  me,  I  have  to  admit  that  he  is  a 
great  master,  and  that  he  is  thoroughly  capable  of 
developing  artistic  talent  to  the  utmost.  He  makes 
Miss  B.  so  provoked  that  she  had  vei-y  strong  thoughts 
of  going  to  Stuttgardt.  The  Stuttgardt  conserva- 
torium  is  so  crowded  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  get  ad- 
mission. Lebert  (Mehlig's  master,)  sent  word  on  her 
writing  to  enquire,  that  he  would  only  take  her  on  con- 
dition that  she  brought  him  a  letter  from  Kullak  au- 
thorizing her  leaving  him,  as  Kullak  was  a  personal 
friend  of  his  own,  and  so  great  an  artist,  that  only  the 
most  important  reasons  could  justify  her  giving  up 
his  instructions  !  Of  course  that  put  the  stopper  on  any 
such  movement. 

I've  always  forgotten  to'describe  Bulow's  playing  to 
you,  and  it  is  now  so  long  since  I  heard  him  that  my 
impressions  of  it  are  not  so  vivid.  He  has  the  most 
forcible  style  I  ever  heard,  and  phrases  wonderfully. 
It  is  like  looking  through  a  stereoscope  to  hear  him. 
All  the  points  of  a  piece  seem  to  start  out  vividly  be- 
fore you.  He  makes  me  think  of  Gottschalk  a  little, 
for  he  is  full  of  his  airs.  His  expression  is  proud  and 
supercilious  to  the  last  degree,  and  he  looks  all  round 
at  his  audience  when  he  is  playing.  He  always  has 
two  grand  pianos  on  the  stage,  one  facing  one  way, 
and  one  the  other,  and  he  plays  alternately  on  both. 
His  face  seems  to  say  to  his  audience,  "  You're  all  cats 
and  dogs,  and  I  don't  care  what  you  think  of  my  play- 
ing." Sometimes  a  look  of  infinite  humour  comes  over 
it,  when  he  is  playing  a  rondo  or  anything  gay.     It  is 


A  PRINCELY  FUNERAL.  177 

very  funny.  He  has  remarkable  magnetic  power,  and 
you  feel  that  you  are  under  the  sway  of  a  tremendous 
will.  Many  persons  find  fault  with  his  playing,  because 
they  say  it  is  pure  intellect  (der  reine  Verstand)  but 
I  think  he  has  too  much  passion  to  be  called  purely 
intellectual.  Still,  it  is  always  passion  controlled.  Beet- 
hoven has  been  the  grand  study  of  his  life,  and  he 
playes  his  sonatas  as  no  one  else  does. 

If  he  goes  to  America  next  winter,  you  mttst  hear 
him  thoroughly,  co^te  que  coi^te.  So  I  advise  you  to 
be  saving  up  your  pennies,  and  be  sure  to  get  a  place 
near  the  piano  so  that  you  can  see  his  face,  for  it  is  a 
study.     I  always  sit  in  the  second  or  third  row  here. 


Berlin,  October  27, 1872. 
This  week  has  been  quite  an  eventful  one.  It  began 
on  Monday  with  the  funeral  of  Prince  Albrecht,  the 
youngest  brother  of  the  Emperor,  and  it  was  a  very 
imposing  spectacle.  I  was  in  hopes  that  Mr.  B.  would 
send  me  a  card  of  admission  to  the  Dom,  where  the  serv- 
ices were  to  be  held,  but  as  he  didn't,  I  was  obliged  to 
content  myseK  with  a  sight  of  the  procession  and  gen- 
eral arrangement  outside.  I  took  my  stand  on  a  wagon 
with  H.,  and  we  got  an  excellent  view.  There  was  a 
roadway  built  of  wood  from  the  royal  Castle  to  the  Dom, 
carpeted  with  black,  over  which  the  procession  was  to 
pass.  We  waited  about  an  hour  before  it  came  along, 
but  we  were  pretty  well  amused  by  the  gorgeous  equi- 
pages and  liveries  of  the  different  diplomatic  corps 
which  dashed  past. 
12 


178  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

We  were  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  canal  which 
separated  us  from  the  square  in  front  of  the  Dom. 
On  the  right  of  the  Dom  is  the  Castle,  and  the  Museum 
is  on  the  left.  All  this  square  was  surrounded  by 
military,  for  as  Prince  Albrecht  was  a  Field-Marshal, 
the  funeral  had  a  military  character.  They  were  beau- 
tifully arranged,  the  cavalry  on  one  side  and  the 
infantry  on  the  other,  and  the  different  uniforms  were 
contrasted  with  each  other  so  as  to  make  the  best 
effects  in  colour.  Both  horses  and  men  stood  as  if 
they  were  carved  out  of  marble,  with  the  greatest  pre- 
cision of  position.  A  little  before  eleven  the  royal 
carriages  rolled  past  from  the  palace  to  the  Castle, 
with  their  occupants.  Presently  the  bells  began  to  toll, 
and  exactly  at  eleven  the  procession  started.  The  Gardes 
du  Corps,  which  is  the  Crown  Prince's  regiment,  pre- 
ceded the  coffin,  dressed  in  wliite  and  silver  uniforms, 
with  glittering  brass  helmets  surmounted  by  silver 
eagles.  The  coffin  itself  was  borne  on  a  catafalque, 
and  drawn  by  eight  horses  covered  with  black  velvet 
trappings.  It  was  yellow,  and  was  surmounted  by  a 
crown  of  gold.  On  it  was  laid  the  Prince/s  sword,  hel- 
met, etc.,  and  some  flowers.  I  was  too  far  away  to 
distinguish  the  personages  that  followed.  Of  course 
the  Emperor  was  nearest,  and  all  were  on  foot.  Be- 
hind the  coffin  the  Prince's  favorite  horse  was  led,  sad- 
dled and  bridled.  All  the  servants  of  his  household 
walked  together  in  silver  liveries  and  with  large  tri- 
angular hats  with  long  bands  of  crape  hanging  down 
behind.  The  band  played  a  chorale,  "Jesus,  my  Ref- 
uge," and  the  bells  kept  tolling  all  the  while.     At  the 


A  •♦  CHARMEUSE."  179 

door  of  the  Dom,  the  procession  was  received  by  the 
clergy  officiating.  The  coffin  was  so  heavy  that  it 
was  rolled  down  a  platform  of  boards  put  up  for  the 
purpose.  Then  it  was  lifted  by  sixteen  bearers,  the 
glittering  cortege  closed  round  it,  and  they  all  swept 
it  at  the  open  portal. 

We  waited  until  the  end  of  the  service,  as  it  was  a 
short  one,  in  order  to  hear  the  eight  rounds  of  firing 
by  the  artillery.  It  was  interesting  to  see  how  exactly 
they  all  fired  the  instant  the  signal  was  given.  First  the 
musketry  on  one  side,  and  then  the  musketry  on  the 
other,  in  answer  to  it.  The  officers  galloped  and  cur- 
veted about  on  their  fiery  steeds,  and  finally,  the  can- 
non went  boom — boom.  The  sharp  crack  of  the  rifles 
made  you  start,  but  the  sullen  roar  of  the  cannon 
made  you  shudder.     It  gave  you  some  idea  of  a  battle. 

Tuesday  night  I  went  to  a  concert  given  by  a  new 
star  in  the  musical  world,  a  young  violinist  named  Wil- 
helm  j.  He  is  only  twenty-six  years  old,  and  is  already 
said  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  virtuosi  living,  perhaps 
the  greatest  of  the  romantic  school,  for  Joachim 
belongs  to  the  severe  classic.  All  the  artists  and 
critics  and  many  of  the  aristocracy  turned  out  to 
hear  him.  It  was  his  first  appearance  in  Berlin,  and 
as  I  looked  round  the  audience  and  picked  out  one 
great  musician  after  another,  I  fairly  trembled  for 
him.  Joachim  and  de  Ahna  were  both  present,  among 
others,  and  my  adorable  Baroness  von  S.  swept  in  late, 
looking  more  exquisite  than  ever  in  black  lace  over 
black  silk,  with  jet  ornaments,  and  her  lovely  hair 
curled  and  done  up  high  on  her  aristocratic  little  head. 


180  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

She  was  all  in  mourning  for  the  Prince,  even  to  a 
black  lace  fan  with  which  she  occasionally  shaded  her 
eyes,  so  that  her  peach-bloomy  cheek  was  just  to  be 
discerned  through  it.  She  is  a  charming  pianist  her- 
self, I've  heard,  and  is  a  great  patroness  of  music  and 
musicians,  especially  of  the  "  music  of  the  future," 
and  its  creators.  I  see  her  at  all  the  concerts.  When 
her  face  is  in  perfect  repose  she  has  the  most  charming 
expression  and  -a  sort  of  celestial  look  in  her  deep- 
set  blue  eyes.  She  is  what  the  French  call  spirituelle, 
and  the  Germans  geistreich,  but  we've  no  word  in  our 
language  that  just  describes  her. 

Well,  as  I  was  saying,  my  head  got  quite  dizzy  with 
thinking  what  a  trial  it  was  to  play  before  such  an  audi- 
ence, but  Wilhelmj  seemed  to  differ  from  me,  for  he 
came  confidently  down  the  steps  with  the  dignified 
self -poise  of  an  artist  who  is  master  of  his  instrument, 
and  who  knows  what  he  can  do.  He  is  extremely 
handsome,  with  regular  features,  massive  overhanging 
forehead,  and  with  an  expression  of  power  and  self -con- 
tainment. He  looked  a  perfect  picture  as  he  stood  there 
so  quietly  and  played.  He  hadn't  gone  far  before  he 
made  a  brilliant  cadenza  that  took  down  the  house,  and 
there  was  a  general  burst  of  applause.  His  tone  (which 
is  the  grand  thing  in  violin-playing)  was  magnificent, 
and  his  technique  masterly.  He  didn't  play  with  that 
tenderness  of  feeling  and  wonderful  variety  of  expression 
that  Joachim  does,  but  it  was  as  if  he  didn't  care  to 
affect  people  in  that  way.  It  made  me  think  of  Tau- 
sig  on  the  piano.  He  played  with  the  greatest  in- 
tensity and  aplomb,  and  the  strings  seemed  aotuaiy  to 


WILHELMJ,  181 


seethe.  People  were  taken  by  storm.  The  second 
piece  was  a  concerto  by  Raff.  Wilhelmj  was  in  the 
midst  of  the  Andante,  and  was  sawing  our  hearts  with 
every  saw  of  his  bow,  when  suddenly  a  string  snapped 
under  the  strain  of  his  passionate  fingers.  He  instantly 
ceased  playing,  and  retired  up  the  steps  to  the  back  of 
the  stage  to  put  on  another  string.  Unfortunately  he  had 
not  brought  along  an  extra  one  in  his  pocket,  and  had 
to  borrow  one  from  one  of  the  orchestra.  Weitzmann, 
who  in  his  youth  was  himself  an  eminent  concert  violin- 
ist, was  amazed  at  Wilhelmj's  temerity.  "What  rash- 
ness,^^  exclaimed  he,  "  and  the  G  string,  too !"  (one  of 
the  most  important).  After  a  pause  Wilhelmj  came 
down  and  began  again,  but  the  string  was  so  out  of  tune 
that  he  retired  a  second  time.  He  must  have  been  furi- 
ous inwardly,  one  would  think,  and  at  his  Berlin  debut, 
too !  but  he  came  down  the  third  time  with  the  utmost 
imperturbability,  and  got  through  the  concerto.  The 
whole  effect  of  the  concert  was  spoiled,  though,  and  he 
had  also  to  change  the  solos  he  had  intended  playing,  so 
as  to  avoid  the  G  string  as  much  as  possible.  Instead  of 
the  lovely  Chopin  Nocturne  in  D  flat  (his  own  arrange- 
ment), he  played  an  Aria  by  Bach.  He  did  it  so  won- 
derfully that  I  was  really  startled. — I  never  shall  forget 
the  nuances  he  put  into  his  trill.  But  at  his  second 
concert,  where  he  did  give  the  Nocturne,  it  was  evident 
that  the  romantic  is  his  great  forte,  and  on  a  first 
appearance,  and  before  his  large  and  critical  audience, 
he  should  have  been  heard  in  that  genre.* 

*  This  letter,  which  was  pnhlished  in  DwighVs  Journal  of  Mutie^  \a 
the  one  alluded  to  on  p.  193. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

The  Boston  Fire.    Aggravations  of  Music  Study.    Kullak. 

Sherwood.    Hoch  Schule.    A  Brilliant  American. 

German  Dancing. 

Berlin,  November  24, 1872. 
All  the  papers  over  here  have  been  ringing  with  the 
Boston  fire,  the  horse  pestilence,  shipwrecks,  explosions, 
etc.,  until  I  feel  as  if  all  America  were  going  to  the  bad. 
What  an  awful  calamity  that  fire  is !  I  can't  take  it  in 
at  all.  All  the  Germans  are  wondering  what  our  fire 
companies  are  made  of  that  such  conflagrations  can  take 
place.  They  say  it  would  be  an  impossibility  here^ 
where  the  organization  is  so  perfect.  The  men  are 
trained  to  the  work  for  years,  and  are  on  the  spot  in  a 
twinkling,  knowing  just  what  to  do.  They  are  as  fully 
convinced  of  their  super-excellence  in  the  Fire  Depart- 
ment as  in  every  other,  and  nothing  can  make  them 
believe  that  if  two  or  three  of  their  little  fire-engines  had 
been  there,  and  worked  by  their  firemen,  the  Chicago 
and  Boston  fires  could  not  have  been  put  out !  You 
know  their  machines  are  pumped  by  hand,  too,  instead 
of  by  steam,  as  ours  are,  which  makes  the  assumption 
all  the  more  ludicrous.  It  reminds  me  of  a  German 
party  I  was  at  once,  where  our  war  was  the  subject  of 
conversation.  "Oh,  you  don't  know  anything  about 
fighting  over  there,"  said  one  gentleman,  nodding  at  me 
patronizingly  across  the  table.    "  If  you  had  had  two  or 

(182) 


A  DESPERATE  VEXATION.  183 

three  of  our  regiments,  with  one  of  our  generals,  your 
war  would  have  been  finished  up  in  no  time !" 

I've  had  such  a  vexation  to-day  that  I'm  really  quite 
beside  myself !  I  was  to  play  the  first  movement  of  my 
Kubinstein  Concerto  in  the  conservatory  with  the  orches- 
tra. I've  been  straining  every  nerve  over  it  for  several 
weeks,  practicing  incessantly,  and  had  learned  it  perfectly. 
When  I  played  it  in  the  class  the  other  day  it  went  beau- 
tifully, and  I  think  even  KuUak  was  satisfied.  Well,  of 
course  I  was  anticipating  playing  it  with  the  orchestra 
before  an  audience,  with  much  pleasure,  and  hoped  I  was 
going  to  distinguish  myself.  Music-director  Wuerst  and 
Franz  Kullak  always  take  charge  of  these  orchestra  les- 
sons, sometimes  one  directing  and  sometimes  the  other. 
I  got  up  early  this  mommg,  and  practiced  an  hour  and 
a  half  before  I  went  to  the  conservatory,  and  I  was  there 
the  first  of  all  who  were  to  play  concertos.  I  spoke  to 
Wuerst  and  told  him  what  I  was  to  play,  and  he  said 
"All  right."  Wouldn't  you  have  thought  now,  that  he 
would  have  let  me  play  first?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  He  first 
heard  the  orchestra  play  a  stupid  symphony  of  Hadyn's, 
which  they  might  just  as  well  have  left  out.  Then  he 
began  screaming  out  to  know  if  Herr  Moszkowski  was 
there?  Herr  Moszkowski,  however,  was  not  there,  and 
I  began  to  breathe  freer,  for  he  is  a  finished  artist,  and 
has  been  studying  with  Kullak  for  years,  and  plays  in 
concerts.  Of  course  if  he  had  played  first,  it  would  have 
been  doubly  hard  for  me  to  muster  up  my  courage,  and 
you  would  have  thought  that  Wuerst  would  have  taken 
that  into  consideration.  As  Moszkowski  was  absent,  I 
thought  I  certainly  should  be  called  up  next,  but  another 


184  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

girl  received  the  preference.  She  played  extremely  well, 
and  Wuerst  paid  her  liis  compliments,  and  then  took  his 
departure,  leaving  Franz  Kullak  to  conduct.  Then  one 
of  my  class  played  Beethoven's  G  major  concerto  most 
wretchedly.  Poor  creature,  she  was  nervous  and  fright- 
ened, and  couldn't  do  herself  any  sort  of  justice.  At 
last  it  was  over,  and  at  last  Franz  Kullak  sung  out,  "We 
will  now  have  Rubinstein's  concerto  in  D  minor." 

I  got  up,  went  to  the  piano,  wiped  off  the  keys, 
which  were  completely  wet  from  the  nervous  fingers 
of  those  who  had  preceded  me,  and  was  just  going  to 
sit  down,  when  a  young  fellow  approached  from  the 
other  side  with  the  same  intention.  "0,  FrSulein 
Fay,  you  have  the  same  concerto  ?  Very  well,  you  can 
play  it  the  next  time.  To-day  Herr  So-and-So  plays 
it !"  Now,  did  you  ever  know  anything  so  provoking? 
I  hoped  at  least  that  the  young  fellow  would  play  it 
well,  and  that  I  should  learn  something,  but  he  per- 
fectly murdered  it,  and  there  I  had  to  sit  through  it 
all,  Avith  the  piece  tingling  at  my  fingers  ends — and 
now  there's  no  knowing  when  I  shall  play  it,  as  the 
orchestra  lessons  are  so  seldom  and  so  uncertain.  I 
hope  there  will  be  one  two  weeks  from  to-day,  but 
even  so  I  probably  shan't  do  half  so  well  as  I  should 
have  done  to-day,  for  the  freshness  will  be  all  out  of 
the  piece,  and  I've  practiced  it  so  much  now  that  I 
hate  the  sound  of  it,  and  can't  bear  to  waste  any  more 
time  over  it.  Such  is  life !  I  thought  this  time  that 
I  had  taken  every  precaution  to  ensure  success,  for  I 
had  risen  early  every  day,  and  eaten  no  end  of  the 
"  bread  of  carefulness,"  and  the  result  is — nothing  at 


A  POLISH  ARTIST.  185 

all !  Not  even  a  failure.  It  is  the  more  to  be  re- 
gretted as  to-day  was  the  first  Sunday  of  the  month, 
and  I  wanted  to  go  to  church,  especially  as  the  bad 
weather  kept  me  at  home  for  two  Sundays.  However, 
I'm  determined  I  will  play  the  concerto  yet,  if  I  stake 
"liopf  und  Kragen  (head  and  collar)"  on  it,  as  the 
Germans  say. — But  oh,  the  difficulty  of  doing  anything 
at  all  in  this  world  ! 

December  18,  1872. — At  last  I  played  my  Rubin- 
stein concerto  a  week  ago  Sunday  with  the  orchestra, 
and  had  the  pleasure  of  being  told  by  Scharwenka 
that  I  had  had  a  brilliant  success.  Franz  Kullak  said 
that  my  octave  passages  were  superbly  played,  and 
Moszkowski  (who,  to  my  surprise,  was  playing  first 
violin)  applauded.  So  I  was  complimented  by  the 
three  of  whom  I  stood  most  in  awe.  Scharwenka  and 
Moszkowski  are  both  finished  artists  and  exquisite 
composers,  and  play  a  great  deal  in  concerts^this  win- 
ter. Schai-wenka  is  very  handsome.  He  is  a  Pole, 
and  is  very  proud  of  his  nationality.  And,  indeed, 
there  is  something  interesting  and  romantic  about 
being  a  Pole.  The  very  name  conjures  up  thoughts 
of  revolutions,  conspiracies,  bloody  executions,  masked 
balls,  and,  of  course,  grace,  wit  and  beauty !  Schar- 
wenka certainly  sustains  the  traditions  of  his  race  as 
far  as  the  latter  qualification  is  concerned.  I  never 
talked  with  him,  as  I  have  but  a  bowing  acquaintance 
with  him,  so  I  don't  know  what  sort  of  a  mind  he  has, 
but  I  find  myself  looking  at  him  and  saying  to  myself 
with  a  certain  degree  of  satisfaction,  "  He  is  a  Pole." 
Why  I  should  have  this  feeling  I  know  not,  but  I 


186  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

seem  to  be  proud  of  knowing  Poles ! — Scharwenka 
has  a  clear  olive  complexion,  oval  face,  hazel  eyes  (I 
think)  and  a  mass  of  brown  silky  hair  which  he  wears 
long,  and  which  falls  about  his  head  in  a  most  pictur- 
esque and  attractive  fashion.  He  always  presides 
over  the  piano  at  the  orchestral  lessons  in  the  conser- 
vatory on  Sunday  mornings,  and  supplies  those  parts 
which  are  wanting.  When  concertos  are  performed  he 
accompanies.  He  has  a  delightful  serenity  of  manner, 
and  sits  there  with  quiet  dignity,  his  back  to  the  win- 
dows, and  the  light  striking  through  his  fluffy  hair. 
He  plays  beautifully,  and  composes  after  Chopin's 
manner.  Perhaps  he  will  do  greater  things  and  de- 
velop a  style  of  his  own  by  and  by.  Every  winter  he 
gives  a  concert  in  Berlin  in  the  Sing-Akademie. 

By  the  way,  I  would  not  advise  your  paying  any  at- 
tention to  what  G.  says  about  music.  She  is  incapa- 
ble of  forming  a  correct  judgment  on  the  subject,  and 
she  used  to  provoke  me  to  death  with  her  ignorant 
and  sweeping  criticisms.  I  continually  set  her  right, 
but  to  hear  her  go  on  about  music  and  musicians  is 
much  like  hearing  S.  K.  and  the  M.  crowd  talk  about 
art.  What  can  be  easier  or  more  absurd,  than  to  set 
yourself  up  and  say  that  "nobody  satisfies  you." 
Stuff! — As  for  Kullak,  I  think  a  master  must  be 
judged  by  the  number  of  players  he  turns  out.  In 
the  two  years  that  I  have  studied  with  him  he  has 
formed  six  or  eight  artists  to  my  knowledge,  beside 
no  end  of  pupils  who  play  extremely  well.  People 
come  to  him  from  all  over  the  world,  and  as  an  artist 
himself  he  ranks  first  class. 


AN  AMERICAN  PHOENIX.  187 

I  must  tell  you  about  a  new  acquaintance  I've  just 
made,  a  Mr.  P.,  a  Harvard  man,  very  fascinating,  very 
brilliant,  a  great  swell,  and  the  most  perfect  dancer 
I  ever  saw.  I  first  met  this  phoenix  at  a  dinner,  when 
he  fairly  sparkled.  He  seemed  to  have  the  history  of 
all  countries  at  his  tongue's  end,  and  went  through 
revolutions  and  reigns  in  the  most  rapid  way.  We 
had  an  animated  discussion  over  the  Germans,  whom 
he  loathes  and  despises,  and  he  brought  up  all  the  his- 
torical events  he  could  to  justify  his  disgust.  I  was 
on  the  defensive,  of  course.  "They've  no  delicacy ^^^ 
said  P.,  in  his  emphatic  way,  and  I  had  to  give  in 
there.  Indeed,  I  can  imagine  that  to  a  fastidious 
creature  like  him,  imbued,  too,  with  all  the  Southern 
chivalry,  the  Germans  would  be  startling,  to  say  the 
least.  "Why,"  he  cried,  "they  help  you  at  table  with 
their  own  forks  after  they've  been  eating  with  them  ! 
What  do  you  think  my  host  did  to-day  ?  He  took  a 
piece  of  meat  that  he  had  begun  to  eat,  from  his  cnvn 
plate!  and  put  it  on  to  mine  with  his  own  fork! !  say- 
ing, *Try  this,  this  is  a  good  piece!' — His  inten- 
tions were  excellent,  but  it  never  occurred  to  him  that 
I  shouldn't  be  delighted  to  eat  after  him." — P.  can't 
bear  it  when  the  waiters  at  the  restaurants  pretend  to 
think  him  a  lord  and  address  him  as  "Herr  Graf." 
"  I'll  teach  them  to  Herr  Graf  me,"  he  said  between 
his  teeth,  lowering  his  head,  his  eyes  flashing  danger- 
ous fire.  But  it  is  quite  likely  that  they  do  suppose 
him  a  lord,  for  he  looks  it,  "  every  inch." 

I  met  him  again  at  a  reception,  and  was  having  a 
most  charming  conversation  with  him  about  Goethe, 


188  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

whom  he  was  dissecting  in  his  keen  way,  when  in 
came  Mr.  and  Mrs.  N.  I  knew  at  once  that  there 
was  an  end  of  our  delightful  talk,  for  though  Mrs.  N. 
has  a  most  fascinating  and  high-bred  husband  herself, 
and  is,  moreover,  extremely  jealous  of  him,  she  is 
never  content  unless  the  most  agreeable  man  in  the 
room  is  devoted  to  her,  also.  Sure  enough,  she  came 
straight  toward  us,  and  took  occasion  to  whisper  some 
senseless  thing  in  my  ear.  Of  course  Mr.  P.  had  to 
offer  her  his  seat.  She  was,  however,  not  quite  bare- 
faced enough  to  take  it,  but  she  had  succeeded  in 
breaking  the  t^te-a-tete  and  in  distracting  his  atten- 
tion. Soon  after  another  gentleman  came  up  to  speak 
to  me,  Mr.  P.  bowed,  and  for  the  rest  of  the  evening 
he  was  pinned  to  Mrs.  N.'s  side.  Such  are  the  satis- 
factions of  parties!  Either  one  does  not  meet  any 
one  worth  talking  to,  or  the  conversation  is  sure  to  be 
interrupted.  It  takes  these  women  of  the  world,  like 
Mrs.  N.,  to  get  the  plums  out  of  the  pudding. 

However,  seeing  him  dance  gave  me  almost  as  much 
pleasure  as  talking  with  him.  He  has  this  air  of 
having  danced  millions  of  Germans,  and  is  grace  and 
elegance  incarnate.  Just  at  the  end  of  the  party,  he 
asked  me  for  a  turn,  and  we  took  three  long  ones. 
I  never  enjoyed  dancing  so  much.  He  manages  to  an- 
nihilate his  legs  entirely,  and  his  arm,  though  strong, 
is  so  light  that  you  feel  yourself  borne  along  like  a 
bubble,  and  are  only  conscious  that  you  are  sustained 
and  guided.  He  inspired  me  so  that  I  danced  really 
well,  but  when  he  coniplimented  me,  I  basely  re- 
frained from  letting  him  know  it  was  all  owing  to 


GERMAN  DANCING.  189 

him !  By  a  funny  coincidence  he  is  the  son  of  that 
elegant  Mrs.  P.  who  was  on  the  steamer  with  me,  and 
his  father  is  very  prominent  in  politics.  I  remember 
perfectly  the  pride  with  which  Mrs.  P.  spoke  to  me 
of  this  son,  and  how  slightly  interested  I  was.  He 
accompanied  her  to  the  steamer,  and  in  fact  the  first 
time  I  saw  her  was  when  Mr.  T.,  who  was  standing  by 
me  on  the  deck,  said,  "  That  was  a  mother's  kiss,"  as 
she  rapturously  embraced  him  on  taking  leave.  I 
didn't  notice  Mr.  P.  at  all,  though  he  says  he  remem- 
bers me  perfectly  standing  there.  He  is  going,  or 
has  gone,  to  Kussia,  and  from  there  he  will  rejoin  his 
family  in  Paris.  That  is  the  worst  of  being  abroad. 
Charming  people  pass  over  your  path  like  comets  and 
disappear  never  to  be  seen  again. 

By  the  way,  I  now  feel  equal  to  anything  in  the 
shape  of  a  German  dance.  Perhaps  that  may  seem 
to  you  a  trifling  statement ;  but  little  do  you  know 
on  the  subject  if  it  does.  If  youVe  ever  read  "Fitz 
Boodle's  Confessions,"  you  will  remember  that  he  rep- 
resents the  German  dancing  as  a  thing  fearful  and 
wonderful  to  the  inexperienced,  and  how  the  match 
between  him  and  Dorothea  was  broken  off  by  his  fall- 
ing w^ith  her  during  the  waltz,  and  rolling  over  and 
over.  Here  everybody  dances,  old  and  young,  and 
you'll  see  fat  old  married  ladies  waddle  off  with  their 
gray  and  spindle-shanked  husbands.  Declining  doesn't 
help  you  in  the  least,  and  you  are  liable  to  be  whisked 
off  without  notice  by  some  old  fellow  who  revolves 
with  you  like  lightning  on  the  tips  of  his  toes,  his 
coat-tails  flying  at  an  angle  of  considerably  more  than 


190  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

forty-five  degrees.  Keversing  is  unknown,  and  conse- 
quently you  see  the  room  go  spinning  round  with  you. 

I  always  thought,  though,  that  if  one  could  take 
their  steps,  it  might  be  pretty  good  fun.  So,  after  a 
pause  of  three  years,  I  finally  concluded  this  winter 
to  go  to  some  German  balls  and  try  it  again.  The 
first  one  I  attended  was  an  artists'  ball.  There  was 
first  a  little  concert  (at  which  I  played),  then  a  sup- 
per at  ten  o'clock,  and  then  the  dancing  began.  The 
dancing  cards  were  handed  round  at  supper,  and  my 
various  acquaintances  came  up  to  ask  me  for  different 
dances.  The  first  one  asked  me  for  the  Polonaise. 
"Delighted!"  said  I; — not  that  I  had  the  remotest 
idea  what  a  "  polonaise  "  was,  but  I  was  determined  not 
to  flinch.  The  second  engaged  me  for  the  "  Quadrille 
a  la  Cour,"  and  the  third  for  the  "  Rheinlaender,"  etc., 
etc.  I  assented  to  everything  with  outward  alacrity, 
but  with  some  inward  trepidation,  for  I  thought  it 
rather  a  bold  stroke  to  get  up  at  a  large  ball  and 
attempt  to  dance  a  string  of  things  I  had  never  heard 
of !  However,  I  was  in  luck.  The  Polonaise  turned 
out  to  be  merely  walking,  but  in  different  figures,  and 
this,  before  the  conclusion  of  it,  makes  you  continu- 
ally change  partners  until  you  have  promenaded  and 
spoken  with  every  one  of  the  opposite  sex  in  the  room. 
This  is  to  get  the  whole  party  acquainted.  When  you 
finally  get  back  to  your  own  partner,  it  breaks  up  with 
a  waltz,  and  so  ends. 

My  partner  was  a  young  artist,  half  painter,  half 
musician,  and  a  very  intelligent  and  in  fact  charming 
talker.      Like  most  artists,  his  dress  was  rather  at 


GERMAN  DANCING.  191 

sixes  and  sevens.  He  had  on  a  swallow-tailed  coat, 
but  it  did  not  fit  liini,  so  I  conclude  it  was  borrowed 
or  hired  for  the  occasion.  It  was  so  wide,  and  so 
long,  that  when  I  saw  him  dancing  with  some  one 
else,  I  thought  I  must  have  made  a  laughable  figure 
with  him,  for  he  was  small  into  the  bargain.  How- 
ever, he  had  that  sunny,  happy-go-lucky  way  about 
him  that  all  artists  have  when  they're  in  good  humour, 
and  he  was  a  capital  dancer.  When  I  came  back  to 
him  at  the  end  of  the  Polonaise  I  started  off  with  a 
mental  "Now  for  it,"  for  the  waltz  was  the  thing  I 
was  most  afraid  of ;  but  to  my  surprise,  I  got  on  most 
beautifully.  Emboldened  by  success,  I  went  on  reck- 
lessly. "  Kheinlaender "  turned  out  to  be  the  schot- 
tisch,  and  "  Quadrille  a  la  Cour  "  the  lancers,  so  I  was 
all  right.  They  had  to  be  danced  in  the  German 
sense  of  the  word,  of  course,  but  with  courage  it  is 
possible  to  do  it.  Since  this  ball  I  have  been  to  two 
others,  and  am  now  pronounced  by  the  gentlemen  to 
be  a  finished  dancer.  I  don't  know  how  I  learned,  but 
it  seemed  to  come  to  me  with  a  sudden  inspiration. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

A  Gterman  Professor.    Sherwood.    The  Baroness  von  S. 

Von  Billow.    A  German  Party.    Joachim. 

The  Baroness  at  Home. 

Berlin,  February  25, 1873. 

At  Mr.  P.'s  we  had  a  charming  dinner  the  other  day, 
which  was  as  sociable  as  possible,  though  we  sat  thir- 
teen at  table.  Think  what  an  oversight !  I  believe 
though,  that  I  was  the  only  one  who  perceived  it.  I  sat 
next  to  a  German  professor,  who  is  said  to  speak  sixty- 
four  languages  !  He  had  a  little  compact  head,  which 
looked  as  if  it  were  stuffed  and  crammed  to  the  utmost. 
I  reflected  a  long  time  which  of  his  sixty-four  lan- 
guages I  should  start  him  on,  but  finally  concluded  that 
as  I  spoke  English  with  tolerable  fluency  we  would 
confine  ourselves  to  that !  He  was  perfectly  delightful 
to  talk  to,  as  all  these  German  savans  are,  and  I  got 
a  lot  of  new  ideas  from  him.  He  had  been  writing 
a  pamphlet  on  the  subject  of  love,  as  considered  in 
various  ancient  and  modern  languages,  and  in  it 
he  proves  that  the  passion  of  love  used  to  be  quite 
a  different  thing  from  what  it  is  now.  All  this  ideality 
of  sentiment  is  entirely  modern. 

My  friend  Miss  B.  is  playing  exquisitely  now,  and 
Sherwood  is  going  ahead  like  a  young  giant.  To-day 
Kullak  said  that  Sherwood  played  Beethoven's  E  flat 
major  concerto   (the  hardest  of  all  Beethoven's  con- 

(192) 


THE  BARONESS  AGAIN.  193 

certos)  with  a  perfection  that  he  had  rarely  heard 
equalled.  So  much  for  being  a  genius,  for  he  is  still 
under  twenty,  and  has  only  been  abroad  a  year  or  two. 
But  he  studied  with  our  best  American  master,  Wil- 
liam Mason,  and  played  like  an  artist  before  he  came. 
But,  then,  Sherwood  has  one  enormous  advantage  that 
no  master  on  earth  can  bestow,  and  that  is,  perfect  con- 
fidence in  himself.  There's  nothing  like  having  faith 
in  yourself,  and  I  believe  that  is  the  kind  of  faith  that 
"  moves  mountains." 

At  Mr.  Bancroft's  grand  party  for  Washington's  birth- 
day, last  Friday,  he  presented  me  to  the  Baroness  von 
S.,  but  without  telling  her  that  I  was  the  person  who 
wrote  that  letter  about  her  and  Wilhelm  j  that  M.  pub- 
lished without  my  knowledge  in  DwigMs  Journal. 
She  was  as  exquisite  as  I  thought  she  would  be,  and  is 
the  most  bewitching  creature !  She  is  just  such  a 
woman  as  Balzac  describes — like  Honorine,  for  in- 
stance. She  has  H^oeil  plein  de  feu"  etc.,  and  is  grace 
and  sentiment  personified. 

She  was  dressed  in  white  silk,  cut  square  neck  and 
trimmed  with  a  lot  of  little  box -plaited  rufiies  round 
the  bottom.  Round  her  throat  was  a  bl^-ck  velvet 
ribbon,  with  a  necklace  of  magnificent  pearls  fastened 
to  it  in  festoons  and  a  diamond  pendant  in  the  middle. 
She  greeted  me  with  a  ceremonious  bow,  and  began 
the  conversation  by  complimenting  me  on  an  accom- 
paniment I  had  been  playing.  I  told  her  I  was  study- 
ing music  here,  and  that  I  had  been  in  Tausig's  con- 
servatory a  year.  As  soon  as  I  mentioned  him  we  got 
on  delightfully,  for  she  was  his  favourite  pupil,  and 


194  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

we  talked  a  good  deal  about  him  and  Billow.  She 
said  she  had  heard  Tausig  play  everything  he  ever 
learned,  she  thought,  and  that  only  a  fortnight  be- 
fore his  death,  he  was  at  her  house  and  played  Chopin's 
first  Sonata.  The  last  movement  comes  after  the 
well-known  Funeral  March  (which  forms  the  Adagio) 
and  is  very  peculiar.  It  is  a  continual  running  move- 
ment with  both  hands  in  unison,  and  it  is  played  all 
muffled,  and  with  the  soft  pedal.  Kullak  thinks  that 
Chopin  meant  to  express  that  after  the  grave  all  is 
dust  and  ashes,  but  the  Baroness  said  that  Tausig 
thought  Chopin  meant  to  represent  by  it  the  ghost  of 
the  departed  wandering  about.  On  this  occasion, 
when  Tausig  had  finished  playing  it,  he  turned  and 
said  to  her,  "  That  seems  to  me  like  the  wind  blowing 
over  my  grave."  A  fortnight  later  he  was  dead  !  I 
asked  her  if  it  were  not  dreadful  that  such  an  artist 
should  have  died  so  young.  The  most  pained  look 
came  into  her  beautiful  eyes,  and  she  said,  "  I  have 
never  been  able  to  reconcile  myself  to  it." 

The  conversation  continued  in  the  most  charming 
manner  until  von  Moltke  came  up  to  speak  to  her  on 
one  side  and  Mr.  Bancroft  on  the  other  offered  his 
arm  to  lead  her  into  the  supper-room.  "  Did  you  tell 
her?"  whispered  Mr.  Bancroft.  "No;  how  could  I?" 
said  I.  "  You  ought  to  tell  her."  So  I  imagine 
he  did  tell  her,  as  they  went  into  supper,  that  I  was 
the  young  lady  who  had  described  her  in  the  paper. 
I  did  not  have  a  chance  to  approach  her  again  until 
just  as  I  was  going  home.  She  was  standing  in  tne 
door-way  of  an  ante-room  with  Mr.  Bancroft,  wrapped 


AN  ARISTOCRATIC  PARTY.  195 

in  her  opera  cloak  and  waiting  for  her  carriage  to  be 
announced.  I  bade  Mr.  Bancroft  good-night,  and  as  I 
passed  her  she  put  out  her  hand  and  said  to  me  with 
a  meaning  look,  in  her  little  hesitating  English,  '*  I 
am  so  happy  to  have  met  you."  I  told  her  I  owed  her 
an  apology,  which  I  hoped  to  make  another  time. 
"  Oh,  no,"  said  she,  smilingly,  "  I  am  very  thankful." 
— I  suppose  she  meant  "very  much  flattered,"  or 
something  of  that  kind. 

I  heard  two  tremendous  concerts  of  Btilow's  lately. 
Oh,  I  do  hope  you'll  hear  him  some  day!  He  is  a 
colossal  artist.  I  never  heard  a  pianist  I  liked  so  well. 
He  has  such  perfect  mastery,  and  yet  such  comprehen- 
sion and  such  sympathy.  Among  other  things,  he 
played  Beethoven's  last  Sonata.  Such  a  magnificent 
one  as  it  is !     I  liked  it  better  than  the  Appassionata. 

The  other  night  I  went  to  a  party  at  a  General  von 
der  O.'s.  It  was  a  "  dreadfully "  elegant  set  of  peo- 
ple— all  countesses,  Vons  and  generals'  wives.  Stiff, 
oh,  how  stiff !  I  felt  as  if  the  ladies  did  me  a  per- 
sonal favor  every  time  they  spoke  to  me.  They 
were  veiy  handsomely  dressed,  and  wore  their  fam- 
ily jewels.  There  was  a  great  deal  of  music,  and 
a  certain  old  Herr  von  K.  sat  on  a  sofa  and  nod- 
ded his  head  i  la  connoisseur,  while  the  officers 
stood  round  and  scarcely  dared  to  wink.  The  for- 
mality did  not  abate  till  we  adjourned  to  the  sup- 
per-room, when,  as  is  always  the  case  in  German 
parties,  everybody's  tongue  suddenly  became  loosed. — 
Germans  are  the  happiest  people  at  supper,  and  the 
most  wretched  before  it,  that  you  ever  saw.    Their 


196  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

parties  are  always  "just  so."  So  manyhour.«  of  propri- 
ety beforehand, — the  ladies  all  by  themselves  round 
a  centre-table  in  one  room,  the  young  girls  discreetly 
sandwiched  in  between  with  their  embroidery,  and 
talking  on  the  most  limited  subjects  in  the  most  "papa, 
potatoes,  poultry,  prunes  and  prism  "  manner — and  the 
men  in  the  other  room  playing  cards.  On  this  occa- 
sion, when  we  went  into  supper,  there  was  one  large 
central  table  covered  with  the  feast,  and  then  there 
were  little  tables  standing  about,  whither  you  could 
retire  with  your  prey  when  you  had  once  secured  it. 
I  got  something,  and  betook  myself  to  a  table  in  the 
corner,  whither  a  young  artist,  also  Miss  B.  and  an 
oflBcer,  the  son  of  the  celebrated  General  von  W.,  who 
won  the  battle  of  something,  speedily  followed  me. 
The  artist,  Herr  Meyer,  sat  opposite  me,  and  I  began  to 
jabber  with  him,  unmindful  of  the  officer,  as  I  had  pre- 
viously tried  him  on  every  subject  in  the  known  world 
without  being  able  to  extract  a  reply.  We  gradually  col- 
lected a  miscellaneous  array  of  plates  full  of  things, 
when  I  dropped  one  of  my  spoons  on  the  floor.  I 
picked  it  up,  laid  it  aside,  and  began  eating  out  of  one 
of  my  other  plates.  Presently  the  officer,  who  had 
been  glaring  at  me  all  the  while  out  of  his  uniform, 
rose  solemnly  and  went  to  the  centre-table  and  re- 
turned. Suddenly  I  became  aware,  by  my  light  being 
obscured,  that  he  was  standing  opposite  me  on  the  other 
side  of  the  table.  I  glanced  up,  and  remarked  that 
he  had  a  spoon  in  his  thumb  and  finger.  As  he  did 
not  offer  it,  however,  it  did  not  occur  to  me  that  it 
was  for  me,  so  I  went  on  eating.    After  a  minute  I 


GOING  TO  WEIMAR.  l97 

looked  up  again,  and  he  was  still  standing  as  if  he 
were  pointing  a  gun,  the  spoon  between  thumb  and 
finger.  At  last  it  dawned  upon  me  that  he  had  brought 
it  for  me,  so  I  took  it  out  of  his  hand  and  thanked 
him,  whereupon  he  resumed  his  seat.  I  was  so  over- 
come by  this  unheard-of  act  of  gallantly  on  the  part 
of  an  aristocrat !  and  an  officer ! !  that  I  felt  I  must 
say  something  worthy  of  the  occasion.  So  after  a  few 
minutes  I  remarked  to  him,  "  Everything  tastes  very 
sweet  out  of  this  spoon  !" — Total  silence  and  impas- 
sibility of  countenance  on  his  part. — Miss  B.,  who  was 
sitting  opposite,  remarked  mischievously,  "  That  was 
entirely  lost,  my  dear,"  and  I  was  so  depressed  by  my 
failure  that  I  subsided  and  did  not  try  to  kindle  him 
again. 


Berlin,  April  14,  1873. 

Colonel  B.  told  me  some  weeks  ago,  that  KuUak  had 
told  him  I  was  ready  for  the  concert  room,  and  that  he 
would  like  to  have  me  play  at  court.  If  this  is  his  real 
opinion  I  have  no  evidence  of  it,  for  he  knows  I  am 
anxious  to  play  in  concert  before  I  leave  Grermany,  and 
yet  he  does  nothing  whatever  to  biing  me  forward.  It 
is  very  discouraging.  In  this  conservatory  there  is  no 
stimulus  whatever.    One  might  as  well  be  a  machine. 

I  propose  to  go  to  Weimar  the  last  of  this  week.  It 
seems  very  strange  that  I  shall  actually  know  Liszt  at 
last,  after  hearing  of  him  so  many  years.  I  am  wild  to 
see  him !  They  say  everything  depends  upon  the  humour 
he   happens  to   be  in    when  you   come  to    him.      I 


198  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

hope  I  shall  hit  upon  one  of  his  indulgent  moments. 
Every  one  says  he  gives  no  lessons.  But  I  hope  at  least 
to  play  to  him  a  few  times,  and  what  is  more  important, 
to  hear  Mm  play  repeatedly.  Happy  the  pianist  who 
can  catch  even  a  faint  reflection  of  his  wonderful  style ! 

Not  long  ago  Mr.  Bancroft  invited  me  to  drive  out 
to  Tegel,  Humboldt's  country-seat,  near  here,  with  the 
Joachims,  and  so  I  had  a  three  hours  conversation  with 
that  idol !  He  is  the  most  modest,  unpretending  man 
possible.  To  hear  him  talk  you  wouldn't  suppose  he 
could  play  at  all.  I've  always  said  to  myself  that  if  any- 
thing would  be  heaven,  it  would  be  to  play  a  sonata  with 
Joachim,  but  have  supposed  such  a  thing  to  be  unattain- 
able— these  master-artists  are  so  proud  and  unapproach- 
able. But  I  think  now  it  might  not  have  been  so  difficult 
after  all,  he  is  so  lovely.  Joachim  was  very  quiet  during 
the  first  part  of  the  excursion,  and  I  couldn't  think  how 
I  could  get  him  to  talk.  At  last  I  mentioned  Wagner, 
whom  I  knew  he  hated.  His  eyes  kindled,  and  he  roused 
up,  and  after  that  was  animated  and  interesting  all  the 
rest  of  the  time !  He  said  that  "Wagner  was  under  the 
delusion  that  he  was  the  only  man  in  the  world  that 
understood  Beethoven ;  but  it  happened  there  were,  other 
people  who  could  comprehend  Beethoven  as  well  as  he,'* 
— and  indeed,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  any  one  under- 
standing Beethoven  any  better  than  Joachim. 

Joachim  is  quite  as  noble  and  generous  to  poor  artists 
as  Liszt  is,  and  constantly  teaches  them  for  nothing.  He 
has  the  greatest  enthusiasm  for  his  class  in  the  Hoch 
Schule,  and  I  shouldn't  think  that  any  one  who  wishes 
to  study  the  violin  would  think  of  going  any  where  else. 


"CALLING"  AT  A  PALACE  !  199 

They  say  that  Joachim  possesses  beautiful  social  qualities, 
also,  and  has  the  faculty  of  entertaining  in  his  own 
house  charmingly.  He  brings  out  what  there  is  in  every 
one  without  apparently  saying  anything  himself. 

The  Baroness  von  S.  had  seemed  so  cordial  and 
friendly  at  Mr.  Bancroft's  on  account  of  the  letter  you 
had  published  in  Dwighfs  Journal  of  Music,  that  I 
finally  made  up  my  mind  to  the  daring  act  of  calling  on 
her  in  order  to  ask  her  for  a  letter  of  introduction  to 
Liszt.  She  lives  in  a  palace  belonging  to  the  Empress. 
There  is  a  deep  court  in  front  of  it,  with  lions  on  the 
gateway.  Before  the  door  stood  a  soldier  on  guard.  As 
I  approached,  one  of  the  Gardes  du  Corps  (the  Crown 
Prince's  regiment)  emerged  from  the  entrance.  He  was 
dressed  all  in  white  and  silver,  with  big  top  boots,  and 
his  helmet  surmounted  by  a  silver  eagle.  He  was  an 
officer,  and  of  course  all  the  officers  in  this  regiment 
belong  to  the  flower  of  the  nobility.  I  was  rather  awed 
by  his  imposing  appearance,  and  advanced  timidly  to  the 
doors,  which  were  of  glass,  and  pulled  the  bell.  A  tall 
phantom  in  livery  appeared,  as  if  by  magic,  and  signed 
to  me  to  ascend  the  grand  staircase.  The  walls  of  it 
were  all  covered  with  pictures.  I  went  up,  and  was 
received  by  another  tall  phantom  in  livery.  I  asked  him 
"if  the  Frau  Excellency  was  to  be  spoken."  He  took 
my  card,  and  discreetly  said, "  he  would  see,"  at  the  same 
time  ushering  me  into  an  immense  ball-room,  where  he 
requested  me  to  be  seated.  It  was  furnished  in  crimson 
satin,  there  were  myriads  of  mirrors,  and  the  floor  was 
waxed.  I  took  refuge  in  a  corner  of  it,  feehng  very  small 
indeed.    Those  few  minutes  of  waiting  were  extremely 


200  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

uncomfortable,  for  I  didn't  know  what  she  would  say  to 
my  request,  as  I  had  only  seen  her  that  one  time  at  Mr. 
Bancroft's,  and  was  not  sure  that  she  would  not  regard 
my  coming  as  a  liberty.  People  are  so  severe  in  their 
ideas  here. 

At  last  the  servant  returned  and  said  she  would  receive 
me,  and  led  the  way  across  the  ball-room  to  a  door 
which  he  opened  for  me  to  enter.  I  found  myself  in  a 
large,  high  room,  also  furnished  in  crimson,  and  in  the 
centre  of  which  stood  two  pianos  nestled  lovingly 
together.  The  Baroness  was  not  there,  however,  and  I 
saw  what  seemed  to  be  an  endless  succession  of  rooms 
opening  one  out  of  the  otlier,  the  doors  always  opposite 
each  other.  I  concluded  to  "go  on  till  I  stopped," 
and  after  traversing  three  or  four,  I  at  last  heard  a 
faint  murmur  of  voices,  and  entered  what  I  suppose  is 
her  boudoir.  There  my  divinity  was  seated  in  a  little 
crimson  satin  sofa,  talking  to  an  old  fellow  who  sat  on 
a  chair  near  her,  whom  she  introduced  as  Herr  Pro- 
fessor Somebody.  He  had  a  small,  well-stuffed  head, 
and  a  pale,  observant  eye  that  seemed  to  say,  "Fve 
looked  into  everything " — and  I  should  think  it  had 
by  the  way  he  conversed. 

The  Baroness  was  attired  in  an  olive-coloured  silk, 
short,  and  fashionably  made.  She  was  leaning  for- 
ward as  she  talked,  and  toying  with  a  silver-sheathed 
dagger  which  she  took  from  a  table  loaded  with  costly 
trifles  next  her.  She  rose  as  I  came  in,  and  greeted 
me  very  cordially,  and  asked  me  to  sit  down  on  the 
sofa  by  her.  I  explained  to  her  my  errand,  and  she  im- 
mediately said  she  would  give  me  a  letter  with  the  great- 


A  HERR  PROFESSOR.  201 

est  pleasure.  We  had  a  very  charming  conversation 
about  artists  in  general,  and  Liszt  in  particular,  in 
which  the  little  professor  took  a  leading  part.  He 
showed  himself  the  connoisseur  he  looked,  and  gradu- 
ally diverged  from  the  art  of  music  to  that  of  speak- 
ing and  reading,  which  he  said  was  the  most  difficult 
of  all  the  arts,  because  the  tone  was  not  there,  but  had 
to  be  made.  He  said  he  had  never  heard  a  perfect 
speaker  or  reader  in  his  life.  He  descanted  at  great 
length  upon  the  art  of  speaking,  and  finally,  when  he 
paused,  the  Baroness  took  my  hand  and  said,  "  Where 
do  you  live  ?"  I  gave  her  my  address,  and  she  said  she 
would  send  me  the  letter.  I  then  rose  to  go,  and  she  as- 
sured me  again  she  would  say  all  she  could  to  dispose 
Liszt  favourably  towards  me.  I  thanked  her,  and  said 
good-bye.  She  waited  till  I  was  nearly  half  across 
the  next  room,  and  then  she  called  after  me,  "  I'll  say 
lots  of  pretty  things  about  you  I"  That  was  a  real 
little  piece  of  coquetry  on  her  part,  and  she  knew  that 
it  would  take  me  down  !  She  looked  so  sweet  when 
she  said  it,  standing  and  smiling  there  in  the  middle 
of  the  floor,  the  door-way  making  a  frame  for  her.  A 
few  days  afterward  I  met  her  in  the  street,  and  she 
told  me  she  had  enjoined  it  upon  Liszt  to  be  amiable 
to  me,  "  but,"  she  added,  with  a  mischievous  laugh, 
"  I  didn't  tell  him  you  wrote  so  well  for  the  papers." 
Oh,  she  is  too  fascinating  for  anything ! — She  seems 
just  to  float  on  the  top  of  the  wave  and  never  to  think. 
Such  exquisite  perception  and  intelligence,  and  yet 
lightness ! 

The  last  excitement  in  Berlin  was  over  the  wedding 


202  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

of  Prince  Albrecht  (the  son  of  the  one  whose  funeral 
I  saw)  with  the  Princess  of  Altenburg.  When  she 
arrived  she  made  a  regular  entry  into  the  city  in  a 
coach  all  gold  and  glass,  drawn  by  eight  superb 
plumed  horses.  A  band  of  music  went  before  her^ 
and  she  had  an  escort  all  in  grand  equipages.  As  she 
sat  on  the  back  seat  with  the  Crown  Princess,  mag- 
nificently dressed,  and  bowing  from  side  to  side,  you 
rubbed  your  eyes  and  thought  you  saw  Cinderella ! 


WITH  LISZT. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

Arrives  in  Weimar.    Liszt  at  tlie  Tlieatre.    At  a  Party. 
At  his  own  House. 

Weimar,  May  1, 1873. 

Last  night  I  arrived  in  Weimar,  and  this  evening  I 
have  been  to  the  theatre,  which  is  very  cheap  here,  and 
the  first  person  I  saw,  sitting  in  a  box  opposite,  was 
Liszt,  from  whom,  as  you  know,  I  am  bent  on  getting 
lessons,  though  it  will  be  a  difficult  thing  I  fear,  as  I 
am  told  that  Wiemar  is  overcrowded  with  people  who 
are  on  the  same  errand.  I  recognized  Liszt  from  his 
portrait,  and  it  entertained  and  interested  me  very 
much  to  obsei*ve  him.  He  was  making  himself  agree- 
able to  three  ladies,  one  of  whom  was  very  pretty.  He 
sat  with  his  back  to  the  stage,  not  paying  the  least  at- 
tention, apparently,  to  the  play,  for  he  kept  talking  all 
the  while  himself,  and  yet  no  point  of  it  escaped  him, 
as  I  could  tell  by  his  expression  and  gestures. 

Liszt  is  the  most  interesting  and  striking  looking 
man  imaginable.  Tall  and  slight,  with  deep-set  eyes, 
shaggy  eyebrows,  and  long  iron-gray  hair,  which  he 
wears  parted  in  the  middle.  His  mouth  turns  up  at 
the  corners,  which  gives  him  a  most  crafty  and  Me- 
phistophelean expression  when  he  smiles,  and  his  whole 
appearance  and  manner  have  a  sort  of  Jesuitical  ele- 
gance and  ease.  His  hands  are  very  narrow,  with  long 
and  slender  fingers  that  look  as  if  they  had  twice  as 

(205) 


206  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

many  joints  as  other  people's.  They  are  so  flexible 
and  supple  that  it  makes  you  nervous  to  look  at 
them.  Anything  like  the  polish  of  his  manner  I  never 
saw.  When  he  got  up  to  leave  the  box,  for  instance, 
after  his  adieux  to  the  ladies,  he  laid  his  hand  on  his 
heart  and  made  his  final  bow, — not  with  affectation, 
or  in  mere  gallantry,  but  with  a  quiet  courtliness  which 
made  you  feel  that  no  other  way  of  bowing  to  a  lady 
was  right  or  proper.    It  was  most  characteristic. 

But  the  most  extraordinary  thing  about  Liszt  is  his 
wonderful  variety  of  expression  and  play  of  feature. 
One  moment  his  face  will  look  dreamy,  shadowy,  tragic. 
The  next  he  will  be  insinuating,  amiable,  ironical,  sar- 
donic ;  but  always  the  same  captivating  grace  of  man- 
ner. He  is  a  perfect  study.  I  cannot  imagine  how 
he  must  look  when  he  is  playing.  He  is  all  spirit,  but 
half  the  time,  at  least,  a  mocking  spirit,  I  should  say. 
I  have  heard  the  most  remarkable  stories  about  him 
already.  All  Weimar  adores  him,  and  people  say  that 
women  still  go  perfectly  crazy  over  him.  When  he 
walks  out  he  bows  to  everybody  just  like  a  King !  The 
Grand  Duke  has  presented  him  with  a  house  beauti- 
fully situated  on  the  park,  and  here  he  lives  elegantly, 
free  of  expense,  whenever  he  chooses  to  come  to  it. 


Wkimax,  May  7, 1873. 

There  isn't  a  piano  to  be  had  in  Weimar  for  love  or 

money,  as  there  is  no  manufactory,  and  the  few  there 

were  to  be  disposed  of  were  snatched  up  before  I  got 

here.     So  I  have  lost  an  entire  week  in  hunting  one 


LISZT'S  APPEARANCE.  207 

up,  and  was  obliged  to  go  first  to  Erfurt  and  finally 
to  Leipsic,  before  I  could  find  one — and  even  that  was 
sent  over  as  a  favour  after  much  coaxing  and  persua- 
sion. I  felt  so  happy  when  I  fairly  saw  it  in  my  room ! 
As  if  I  had  taken  a  city !  However,  I  met  Liszt  two 
evenings  ago  at  a  little  tea-party  given  by  a  friend  and 
pToUgie  of  his  to  as  many  of  his  scholars  as  have  ar- 
rived, I  being  asked  with  the  rest.  Liszt  promised  to 
come  late.  We  only  numbered  seven.  There  were 
three  young  men  and  four  young  ladies,  of  whom  three, 
including  myself,  were  Americans.  Five  of  the  num- 
ber had  studied  with  Liszt  before,  and  the  young  men 
are  artists  already  before  the  public. 

To  fill  up  the  time  till  Liszt  came,  our  hostess  made 
US  play,  one  after  the  other,  beginning  with  the  latest 
arrival.  After  we  had  each  "exhibited,"  little 
tables  were  brought  in  and  supper  served.  We 
were  in  the  midst  of  it,  and  having  a  merry  time,  when 
the  door  suddenly  opened  and  Liszt  appeared.  We  all 
rose  to  our  feet,  and  he  shook  hands  with  everybody 
without  waiting  to  be  introduced.  Liszt  looks  as  if 
he  had  been  through  everything,  and  has  a  face  seamed 
with  experience.  He  is  rather  tall  and  narrow,  and 
wears  a  long  abba's  coat  reaching  nearly  down  to  his 
feet.  He  made  me  think  of  an  old  time  magician 
more  than  anything,  and  I  felt  that  with  a  touch  of 
his  wand  he  could  transform  us  all.  After  he  had 
finished  hisjgreetings,  he  passed  into  the  next  room 
and  sat  down.  The  young  men  gathered  round  him 
and  offered  him  a  cigar,  which  he  accepted  and  began 
to  smoke.    We  others  continued  our  nonsense  where 


208  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

we  were,  and  I  suppose  Liszt  overheard  some  of  our 
brilliant  conversation,  for  he  asked  who  we  were,  I 
think,  and  presently  the  lady  of  the  house  came  out 
after  Miss  W.  and  me,  the  two  American  strangers,  to 
take  us  in  and  present  us  to  him. 

After  the  preliminary  greetings  we  had  some  little 
talk.  He  asked  me  if  I  had  been  to  Sophie  Menter's 
concert  in  Berlin  the  other  day.  I  said  yes.  He 
remarked  that  Miss  Menter  was  a  great  favourite  of 
his,  and  that  the  lady  from  whom  I  had  brought  a  let- 
ter to  him  had  done  a  good  deal  for  her.  I  asked  him 
if  Sophie  Menter  were  a  pupil  of  his.  He  said  no,  he 
could  not  take  the  credit  of  her  artistic  success  to 
himself.  I  heard  afterwards  that  he  really  had  done 
ever  so  much  for  her,  but  he  won't  have  it  said  that 
he  teaches  !  After  he  had  finished  his  cigar,  Liszt  got 
up  and  said,  "America  is  now  to  have  the  floor,"  and 
requested  Miss  W.  to  play  for  him.  This  was  a  dread- 
ful ordeal  for  us  new  arrivals,  for  we  had  not  expected 
to  be  called  upon.  I  began  to  quake  inwardly,  for  I 
had  been  without  a  piano  for  nearly  a  week,  and  was 
not  at  all  prepared  to  play  to  him,  while  Miss  W.  had. 
been  up  since  five  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  had 
travelled  all  day.  However,  there  was  no  gettmg  off. 
A  request  from  Liszt  is  a  command,  and  Miss  W.  sat 
down,  and  acquitted  herself  as  well  as  could  have  been 
expected  under  the  circumstances.  Liszt  waved  his 
hand  and  nodded  his  head  from  time  to  time,  and 
seemed  pleased,  I  thought.  He  then  called  upon  Lei- 
tert,  who  played  a  composition  of  Liszt's  own  most 
beautifully.     Liszt  commended  him  and  patted  him 


AN  ABSURD  ORGANIST.  209 

on  the  back.  As  soon  as  Leitert  had  finished,  I  slipped 
off  into  the  back  room,  hoping  Liszt  would  forget  all 
about  me,  but  he  followed  me  almost  immediately, 
like  a  cat  with  a  mouse,  took  both  my  hands  in  his, 
and  said  in  the  most  winning  way  imaginable,  ^^Madem- 
oiselle, vous  jouerez  quelque-chose,  n^est-ce-pas  f " 
I  can't  give  you  any  idea  of  his  persuasiveness,  when 
he  chooses.  It  is  enough  to  decoy  you  into  anything. 
It  was  such  a  desperate  moment  that  I  became  reck- 
less, and  without  even  telling  him  that  I  was  out  of 
practice  and  not  prepared  to  play,  I  sat  down  and 
plunged  into  the  A  flat  major  Ballade  of  Chopin,  as  if 
I  were  possessed.  The  piano  had  a  splendid  touch, 
luckily.  Liszt  kept  calling  out  "  Bravo  "  every  min- 
ute or  two,  to  encourage  me,  and  somehow,  I  got 
through.  When  I  had  finished,  he  clapped  his  hands 
and  said,  "  Bravely  played."  He  asked  with  whom  I 
had  studied,  and  made  one  or  two  little  criticisms.  I 
hoped  he  would  shove  me  aside  and  play  it  himself, 
but  he  didn't. 

Liszt  is  just  like  a  monarch,  and  no  one  dares  speak  to 
him  until  he  addresses  one  first,  which  I  think  no  fun. 
He  did  not  play  to  us  at  all,  except  when  some  one 
asked  him  if  he  had  heard  E.  play  that  afternoon. 
R.  is  a  young  organist  from  Leipsic,  who  telegraphed 
to  Liszt  to  ask  him  if  he  might  come  over  and  play  to 
him  on  the  organ.  Liszt,  with  his  usual  amiability, 
answerd  that  he  might.  "Oh,"  said  Liszt,  with  an 
indescribably  coriiic  look,  "he  improvised  for  me  a 
whole  half -hour  in  this  style," — and  then  he  got  up 
and  went  to  the  piano,  and  without  sitting  down  he 
14 


210  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

played  some  ridiculous  chords  in  the  middle  of  the  key- 
board, and  then  little  trills  and  turns  high  up  in  the 
treble,  which  made  us  all  burst  out  laughing.  Shortly 
after  I  had  played  I  took  my  leave.  Liszt  had  gone 
into  the  other  room  to  smoke,  and  I  didn't  care  to  fol- 
low him,  as  I  saw  that  he  was  tired,  and  had  no  inten- 
tion of  playing  to  us.  Our  hostess  told  Miss  W.  and 
me  to  "  slip  out  so  that  he  would  not  perceive  it." 
Yesterday  Miss  W.  went  to  see  him,  and  he  asked  her 
if  she  knew  that  Miss  "  Fy,"  and  told  her  to  tell  me  to 
come  to  him.  So  I  shall  present  myself  to-morrow, 
though  I  don't  know  how  the  lion  will  act  when  I 
beard  him  in  his  den. 


Weimar,  May  21, 1873. 
Liszt  is  so  besieged  by  people  and  so  tormented  with 
applications,  that  I  fear  I  should  only  have  been  sent 
away  if  I  had  come  without  the  Baroness  von  S.'s  let- 
ter of  introduction,  for  he  admires  her  extremely,  and 
I  judge  that  she  has  much  influence  with  him.  He 
says  "  people  fly  in  his  face  by  dozens,"  and  seem  to 
think  he  is  "  only  there  to  give  lessons."  He  gives  no 
paid  lessons  whatever,  as  he  is  much  too  grand  for 
that,  but  if  one  has  talent  enough,  or  pleases  him,  he 
lets  one  come  to  him  and  play  to  him.  I  go  to  him 
every  other  day,  but  I  don't  play  more  than  twice  a 
week,  as  I  cannot  prepare  so  much,  but  I  listen  to  the 
others.  Up  to  this  point  there  have  been  only  four  in 
the  class  besides  myself,  and  I  am  the  only  new  one. 
From  four  to  six  P.  M.  is  the  time  when  he  receives 


A  TIMID  PUPIL.  211 


his  scholars.  The  first  time  I  went  I  did  not  play  to 
him,  but  listened  to  the  rest.  Urspruch  and  Leitert, 
the  two  young  men  whom  I  met  the  other  night,  have 
studied  with  Liszt  a  long  time,  and  both  play  superbly. 
Fraulein  Schultz  and  Miss  Gaul  (of  Baltimore),  are 
also  most  gifted  creatures. 

As  I  entered  Liszt's  salon,  Urspruch  was  perform- 
ing Schumann's  Symphonic  Studies— an  immense 
composition,  and  one  that  it  took  at  least  half  an 
hour  to  get  through.  He  played  so  splendidly  that 
my  heart  sank  down  into  the  very  depths.  I  thought 
I  should  never  get  on  there!  Liszt  came  forward  and 
greeted  me  in  a  very  friendly  manner  as  I  entered.  He 
was  in  very  good  humour  that  day,  and  made  some 
little  witticisms.  Urspruch  asked  him  what  title  he 
should  give  to  a  piece  he  was  composing.  "Per  aspera 
ad  astra,^^  said  Liszt.  This  was  such  a  good  hit  that 
I  began  to  laugh,  and  he  seemed  to 'enjoy  my  apprecia- 
tion of  his  little  sarcasm.  I  did  not  play  that  time,  as 
my  piano  had  only  just  come,  and  I  was  not  prepared 
to  do  so,  but  I  went  home  and  practiced  tremendously 
for  several  days  on  Chopin's  B  minor  sonata.  It  is 
a  great  composition,  and  one  of  his  last  works.  When 
I  thought  I  could  play  it,  I  went  to  Liszt,  though  with 
a  trembling  heart.  I  cannot  tell  you  what  it  has  cost 
me  every  time  I  have  ascended  his  stairs.  I  can 
scarcely  summon  up  courage  to  go  there,  and  generally 
stand  on  the  steps  awhile  before  I  can  make  up  my 
mind  to  open  the  door  and  go  in ! 

This  day  it  was  particularly  trying,  as  it  was  really 
my  first  serious  performance  before  him,  and  he  speaks 


212  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

so  very  indistinctly  that  I  feared  I  shouldn't  under- 
stand his  corrections,  and  that  he  would  get  out  of 
patience  with  me,  for  he  cannot  bear  to  explain.  I 
think  he  hates  the  trouble  of  speaking  German,  for 
he  mutters  his  words  and  does  not  half  finish  his  sen- 
tences. Yesterday  when  I  was  there  he  spoke  to  me 
in  French  all  the  time,  and  to  the  others  in  German, 
— one  of  his  funny  whims,  I  suppose. 

Well,  on  this  day  the  artists  Leitert  and  Urspruch, 
and  the  young  composer  Metzdorf,  who  is  always  hang- 
ing about  Liszt,  were  in  the  room  when  I  came.  They 
had  probably  been  playing.  At  first  Liszt  took  no 
notice  of  me  beyond  a  greeting,  till  Metzdorf  said  to 
him,  "  Herr  Doctor,  Miss  Fay  has  brought  a  sonata." 
"  Ah,  well,  let  us  hear  it,"  said  Liszt.  Just  then  he  left 
the  room  for  a  minute,  and  I  told  the  three  gentlemen 
that  they  ought  to  go  away  and  let  me  play  to  Liszt 
alone,  for  I  felt  nervous  about  playing  before -them. 
They  all  laughed  at  me  and  said  they  would  not  budge 
an  inch.  When  Liszt  came  back  they  said  to  him, 
"  Only  think,  Herr  Doctor,  Miss  Fay  proposes  to  send 
us  all  home."  I  said  I  could  not  play  before  such 
great  artists.  "Oh,  that  is  healthy  for  you,"  said  Liszt^ 
with  a  smile,  and  added,  "  you  have  a  very  choice  au- 
dience, now."  I  don't  know  whether  he  appreciated 
how  nervous  I  was,  but  instead  of  walking  up  and 
down  the  room  as  he  often  does,  he  sat  down  by  me 
like  any  other  teacher,  and  heard  me  play  the  first 
movement.  It  was  frightfully  hard,  but  I  had  studied 
it  so  much  that  I  managed  to  get  through  with  it 
pretty  successfully.      Nothing  could  exceed   Liszt's 


LISZT  PLAYS  TO  HER.  213 

amiability,  or  the  trouble  he  gave  himself,  and  instead 
of  frightening  me,  he  inspired  me.  Never  was  there 
such  a  delightful  teacher  !  and  he  is  the  first  sympa- 
thetic one  I've  had.  You  feel  so  fret  with  him,  and 
he  develops  the  very  spirit  of  music  in  you.  He  doesn't 
keep  nagging  at  you  all  the  time,  but  he  leaves  you 
your  own  conception.  Now  and  then  he  will  make  a 
criticism,  or  play  a  passage,  and  with  a  few  words  give 
you  enough  to  think  of  all  the  rest  of  your  life.  There 
is  a  delicate  point  to  everything  he  says,  as  subtle  as 
he  is  himself.  He  doesn't  tell  you  anything  about  the 
technique.  That  you  must  work  out  for  yourself. 
When  I  had  finished  the  first  movement  of  the  sonata, 
Liszt,  as  he  always  does,  said  "  Bravo !"  Taking  my 
seat,  he  made  some  little  criticisms,  and  then  told  me 
to  go  on  and  play  the  rest  of  it. 

Now,  I  only  half  knew  the  other  movements,  for  the 
first  one  was  so  extremely  difficult  that  it  cost  me  all 
the  labour  I  could  give  to  prepare  that.  But  playing 
to  Liszt  reminds  me  of  trying  to  feed  the  elephant  in 
the  Zoological  Garden  with  lumps  of  sugar.  He  dis- 
poses of  whole  movements  as  if  they  were  nothing,  and 
stretches  out  gravely  for  more  !  One  of  my  fingers  fortu- 
nately began  to  bleed,  for  I  had  practiced  the  skin  off, 
and  that  gave  me  a  good  excuse  for  stopping.  Whether 
he  was  pleased  at  this  proof  of  industry,  I  know  not ; 
but  after  looking  at  my  finger  and  saying,  "  Oh  !"  very 
compassionately,  he  sat  down  and  played  the  whole 
three  last  movements  himself.  That  was  a  great  deal, 
and  showed  off  all  his  powers.  It  was  the  first  time  I 
had  heard  him,  and  I  don't  know  which  was  the  most 


214  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

extraordinary, — the  Scherzo,  with  its  wonderful  light- 
ness and  swiftness,  the  Adagio  with  its  depth  and 
pathos,  or  the  last  movement,  where  the  whole  key- 
board seemed  to  "  donnern  und  hlitzen  (thunder  and 
lighten)."  There  is  such  a  vividness  about  everything 
he  plays  that  it  does  not  seem  as  if  it  were  mere  music 
you  were  listening  to,  but  it  is  as  if  he  had  called  up  a 
real,  living  form,  and  you  saw  it  breathing  before  your 
face  and  eyes.  It  gives  me  almost  a  ghostly  feeling  to 
hear  him,  and  it  seems  as  if  the  air  were  peopled  with 
spirits.  Oh,  he  is  a  perfect  wizard  !  It  is  as  interest- 
ing to  see  him  as  it  is  to  hear  him,  for  hisf ace  changes 
with  every  modulation  of  the  piece,  and  he  looks  ex- 
actly as  he  is  playing.  He  has  one  element  that  is 
most  captivating,  and  that  is,  a  sort  of  delicate  and 
fitful  mirth  that  keeps  peering  out  at  you  here  and 
there  !  It  is  most  peculiar,  and  when  he  plays  that  way, 
the  most  bewitching  little  expression  comes  over  his 
face.  It  seems  as  if  a  little  spirit  of  joy  were  playing 
hide  and  go  seek  with  you. 

On  Friday  Liszt  came  and  paid  me  a  visit,  and  even 
played  a  little  on  my  piano. — Only  think  what  an  hon- 
our !  At  the  same  time  he  told  me  to  come  to  him 
that  afternoon  and  play  to  him,  and  invited  me  also  to  a 
matinee  he  was  going  to  give  on  Sunday  for  some 
countess  of  distinction  who  was  here  for  a  few  days. 
None  of  the  other  scholars  were  asked,  and  when  I  en- 
tered the  room  there  were  only  three  persons  in  it  be- 
side Liszt.  One  was  the  Grand  Duke  himself,  the 
other  was  the  Countess  von  M.  (born  a  Russian  Prin- 
cess), and  the  third  was  a  Russian  minister's  wife. 


FASHIONABLE  COURTESY.  215 

They  were  all  four  standing  in  a  little  knot,  speaking 
in  French  together.  I  had  no  idea  who  they  were,  as 
the  Grand  Duke  was  in  morning  costume,  and  had  no 
star  or  decoration  to  distinguish  him.  I  saw  at  a  glance, 
however,  that  they  were  all  swells,  and  so  I  didn't  speak 
to  any  of  them,  luckily,  though  it  was  an  even  chance 
that  I  had  not  said  something  to  avoid  the  awkward- 
ness of  standing  there  like  a  post,  for  I  had  been  told 
beforehand  that  Liszt  never  introduced  people  to  each 
other.  Liszt  greeted  me  in  a  very  friendly  manner, 
and  introduced  me  to  the  countess,  but  she  was  so  dread- 
fully set  up  that  it  was  impossible  to  get  more  than  a 
few  icy  words  out  of  her.  I  was  thankful  enough 
when  more  people  arrived,  so  that  I  could  retire  to  a 
corner  and  sit  down  without  being  observed,  for  it  was 
a  very  uncomfortable  situation  to  be  standing,  a 
stranger,  close  to  four  fashionables  and  not  dare  to 
speak  to  any  of  them  because  they  did  not  address  me. 
After  the  company  was  all  assembled,  it  numbered 
eighteen  persons,  nearly  all  of  whom  were  titled.  I 
was  the  only  unimportant  one  in  it.  Liszt  was  so 
sweet.  He  kept  coming  over  to  where  I  sat  and  talk- 
ing to  me,  and  promised  me  a  ticket  for  a  private  con- 
cert where  only  his  compositions  were  to  be  performed. 
He  seemed  determined  to  make  me  feel  at  home.  He 
played  five  times,  but  no  great  work,  which  was  a  dis- 
appointment to  me,  particularly  as  the  last  three  times 
he  played  duetts  with  a  leading  Weimar  artist  named 
Lassen,  who  was  present.  He  made  me  come  and  turn 
the  leaves.  Gracious !  how  he  does  read !  It  is  very 
difficult  to  turn  for  him,  for  he  reads  ever  so  far  ahead 


216  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

of  what  he  is  playing,  and  takes  in  fully  five  bars  at  a 
glance,  so  you  have  to  guess  about  where  you  think  he 
would  like  to  have  the  page  over.  Once  I  turned  it 
too  late,  and  once  too  early,  and  he  snatched  it  out  of 
my  hand  and  whirled  it  back. — Net  quite  the  situation 
for  timorous  me,  was  it? 

May  21. — To-day  being  my  birthday,  I  thought 
I  must  go  to  Liszt  by  way  of  celebration.  I 
wasn't  really  ready  to  play  to  him,  but  I  took  his  sec- 
ond Ballade  with  me,  and  thought  I'd  ask  him  some 
questions  about  some  hard  places  in  it.  He  insisted 
upon  my  playing  it.  When  we  came  in  he  looked 
indisposed  and  nervous,  and  there  happened  to  be  a 
good  many  artists  there.  We  always  lay  our  notes 
on  the  table,  and  he  takes  them,  looks  them  over,  and 
calls  out  what  he'll  have  played.  He  remarked  this 
piece  and  called  out  "  Wer  spielt  diese  grosse  mdchtige 
Ballade  von  mir'^  (Who  plays  this  great  and  mighty 
ballad  of  mine?)"  I  felt  as  if  he  had  asked  "Who 
killed  Cock  Robin?"  and  as  if  I  were  the  one  who  had 
done  it,  only  I  did  not  feel  like  "owning  up"  to  it  quite 
so  glibly  as  the  sparrow  had,  for  Liszt  seemed  to  be  in 
very  bad  humour,  and  had  roughed  the  one  who  had 
played  before  me.  I  finally  mustered  up  my  courage 
and  said  " Ich"  but  told  him  I  did  not  know  it  per- 
fectly yet.  He  said,  "  No  matter ;  play  it."  So  I  sat 
down,  expecting  he  would  take  my  head  off,  but, 
strange  to  say,  he  seemed  to  be  delighted  with  my 
playing,  and  said  that  I  had  "quite  touched  him." 
Think  of  that  from  Liszt,  and  when  I  was  playing  his 
own  composition  !     When  I  went  out  he  accompanied 


"IL  PAUT  VOUS  gItER?"  217 

me  to  the  door,  took  my  hand  in  both  of  his  and  said^ 
"  To-day  you've  covered  yourself  with  glory !"  I  told 
him  I  had  only  begun  it,  and  I  hoped  he  would  let  me 
play  it  again  when  I  knew  it  better.  "What,"  said 
he,  "  I  must  pay  you  a  still  greater  compliment,  must 
I?"  "Of  course,"  said  I.  "Ilfautv<yus  gdUrV  ''Out," 
said  I.    He  laughed. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

Liszt's  Drawing-room,    An  Artist's  Walking  Party.    Liszt's 
Teaching. 

Weimar,  May  29, 1873. 
I  am  having  the  most  heavenly  time  in  Weimar, 
studying  with  Liszt,  and  sometimes  I  can  scarcely  real- 
ize that  I  am  at  that  summit  of  my  ambition,  to  be 
his  pupil !  It  was  the  Baroness  von  S.'s  letter  that 
secured  it  for  me,  I  am  sure.  He  is  so  overrun  with 
people,  that  I  think  it  is  a  wonder  he  is  civil  to 
anybody,  but  he  is  the  most  amiable  man  I  ever  knew, 
though  he  can  be  dreadful,  too,  when  he  chooses,  and 
he  understands  how  to  put  people  outside  his  door 
in  as  short  a  space  of  time  as  it  can  be  done.  I  go  to 
him  three  times  a  week.  At  home  Liszt  doesn't  wear 
his  long  abbe's  coat,  but  a  short  one,  in  which  he 
looks  much  more  artistic.  His  figure  is  remarkably 
slight,  but  his  head  is  most  imposing. — It  is  so  deli- 
cious in  that  room  of  his  !  It  was  all  furnished  and 
put  in  order  for  him  by  the  Grand  Duchess  herself. 
The  walls  are  pale  gray,  with  a  gilded  border  running 
round  the  room,  or  rather  two  rooms,  which  are  divided, 
but  not  separated,  by  crimson  curtains.  The  furni- 
ture is  crimson,  and  everything  is  so  comfortable — such 
a  contrast  to  German  bareness  and  stiffness  generally. 
A  splendid  grand  piano  stands  in  one  window  The 
receives  a  new  one  every  year).    The  other  window*  vs 

(218). 


A  MUSICAL  MONARCH.  219 

always  wide  open,  and  looks  out  on  the  park.  There 
is  a  dove-cote  just  opposite  the  window,  and  the  doves 
promenade  up  and  down  on  the  roof  of  it,  and  fly 
about,  and  sometimes  whirr  down  on  the  sill  itself. 
That  pleases  Liszt.  His  writing-table  is  beautifully 
fitted  up  with  things  that  all  match.  Everything  is 
in  bronze — ink-stand,  paper-weight,  match-box,  etc., 
and  there  is  always  a  lighted  candle  standing  on  it  by 
which  he  and  the  gentlemen  can  light  their  cigars. 
There  is  a  carpet  on  the  floor,  a  rarity  in  Germany, 
and  Liszt  generally  walks  about,  and  smokes,  and  mut- 
ters (he  can  never  be  said  to  talk),  and  calls  upon  one 
or  other  of  us  to  play.  From  time  to  time  he  will  sit 
down  and  play  himself  where  a  passage  does  not  suit 
him,  and  when  he  is  in  good  spirits  he  makes  little 
jests  all  the  time.  His  playing  was  a  complete  reve- 
lation to  me,  and  has  given  me  an  entirely  new  insight 
into  music.  You  cannot  conceive,  without  hearing 
him,  how  poetic  he  is,  or  the  thousand  nuances  that  he 
can  throw  into  the  simplest  thing,  and  he  is  equally 
great  on  all  sides.  From  the  zephyr  to  the  tempest, 
the  whole  scale  is  equally  at  his  command. 

But  Liszt  is  not  at  all  like  a  master,  and  cannot  be 
treated  like  one.  He  is  a  monarch,  and  when  he 
extends  his  royal  sceptre  you  can  sit  down  and  play  to 
him.  You  never  can  ask  him  to  play  anything  for 
you,  no  matter  how  much  you're  dying  to  hear  it.  If 
he  is  in  the  mood  he  will  play,  if  not,  you  must  con- 
tent yourself  with  a  few  remarks.  You  cannot  even 
offer  to  play  yourself.  You  lay  your  notes  on  the  table, 
so  he  can  see  that  you  want  to  play,  and  sit  down.   He 


220  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

r 

takes  a  turn  up  and  down  the  room,  looks  at  the  music, 
and  if  the  piece  interests  him,  he  will  call  upon  you. 
We  bring  the  same  piece  to  him  but  once,  and  but  once 
play  it  through. 

Yesterday  I  had  prepared  for  him  his  Au  Bord 
d^une  Source.  I  was  nervous  and  played  badly.  He 
was  not  to  be  put  out,  however,  but  acted  as  if  he 
thought  I  had  played  charmingly,  and  then  he  sat 
down  and  played  the  whole  piece  himself,  oh,  so  exqui- 
sitely !  It  made  me  feel  like  a  wood-chopper.  The 
notes  just  seemed  to  ripple  off  his  fingers'  ends  with 
scarce  any  perceptible  motion.  As  he  neared  the 
close  I  remarked  that  that  funny  little  expression  came 
over  his  face  which  he  always  has  when  he  means  to 
surprise  you,  and  he  suddenly  took  an  unexpected 
chord  and  extemporized  a  poetical  little  end,  quite 
different  from  the  written  one. — Do  you  wonder  that 
people  go  distracted  over  him? 

Weimar  is  a  lovely  little  place,  and  there  are  most 
beautiful  walks  all  about.  Ascension  being  a  holiday 
here,  all  we  pianists  made  up  a  walking  party  out  to 
Tiefurt,  about  two  miles  distant.  We  went  in  the 
afternoon  and  returned  in  the  evening.  The  walk  lay 
through  the  woods,  and  was  perfectly  exquisite  the 
whole  way.  As  we  came  back  in  the  evening  the  night- 
ingales were  singing,  and  I  could  not  help  wishing  that 
P.  were  there  to  hear  them,  as  he  has  such  a  passion 
for  birds.  There  are  cuckoos  here,  too,  and  you  hear 
them  calling  "cuckoo,  cuckoo."  Metzdorf  and  I 
danced  on  the  hard  road,  to  the  edification  of  all  the 
others.     In  Tiefurt  we  partook  of  a  magnificent  col- 


LAURA  KAHRER.  321 

lation  consisting  of  a  mug  of  beer,  brown  bread  and 
sausage  !  Some  of  the  party  preferred  coffee,  among 
whom  was  Metzdorf,  who  made  us  laugh  by  sticking 
the  coffee-pot  into  his  inside  coat  pocket  as  soon  as 
he  had  poured  out  his  first  cup,  in  order  to  make  sure 
that  the  others  didn't  take  more  than  their  share ; 
he  would  coolly  take  it  out,  help  himself,  and  put 
it  back  again.  The  servant  who  waited  got  frightened, 
and  thought  he  was  going  to  steal  it.  Afterwards 
when  we  were  playing  games  and  wanted  the  door 
shut,  the  host  came  and  opened  it,  and  would  not  allow 
us  to  shut  it,  because  he  said  we  might  carry  off  some- 
thing !    How's  that ! 


Weimar,  June  6, 1873. 
"When  I  first  came  there  were  only  five  of  us  who 
studied  with  Liszt,  but  lately  a  good  many  others  have 
been  there.  Day  before  yesterday  there  came  a  young 
lady  who  was  a  pupil  of  Henselt  in  St.  Petersburg. 
She  is  immensely  talented,  only  seventeen  years  old, 
and  her  name  is  Laura  Rahrer.  It  is  a  very  rare  thing 
to  see  a  pupil  of  Henselt,  for  it  is  very  difficult  to  get 
lessons  from  him.  He  stands  next  to  Liszt.  This 
Laura  Kahrer  plays  everything  that  ever  was  heard  of, 
and  she  played  a  fugue  of  her  own  composition  the 
other  day  that  was  really  vigorous  and  good.  I  was 
quite  astonished  to  hear  how  she  had  worked  it  up. 
She  has  made  a  grand  concert  tour  in  Russia.  I  never 
saw  such  a  hand  as  she  had.  She  could  bend  it  back- 
wards till  it  looked  like  the  palm  of  her  hand  turned 


222  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

inside  out.  She  was  an  interesting  little  creature,  with 
dark  eyes  and  hair,  and  one  could  see  hy  her  Turkish 
necklace  and  numerous  bangles  that  she  had  been 
making  money.  She  played  with  the  greatest  aplomb, 
though  her  touch  had  a  certain  roughness  about  it  to 
my  ear.  She  did  not  carry  me  away,  but  I  have  not 
heard  many  pieces  from  her. 

However,  all  playing  sounds  barren  by  the  side  of 
Liszt,  for  his  is  the  living,  breathing  impersonation  of 
poetry,  passion,  grace,  wit,  coquetry,  daring,  tender- 
ness and  every  other  fascinating  attribute  that  you 
can  think  of  !  I'm  ready  to  hang  myself  half  the  time 
when  I've  been  to  him.  Oh,  he  is  the  most  phenome- 
nal being  in  every  respect !  All  that  you've  heard  of 
him  would  never  give  you  an  idea  of  him.  In  short, 
he  represents  the  whole  scale  of  human  emotion.  He 
is  a  many-sided  prism,  and  reflects  back  the  light  in 
all  colours,  no  matter  how  you  look  at  him.  His  pu- 
pils adore  ^him,  as  in  fact  everybody  else  does,  but  it 
is  impossible  to  do  otherwise  with  a  person  whose  genius 
flashes  out  of  him  all  the  time  so,  and  whose  character 
is  so  winning. 

One  day  this  week,  when  we  were  with  Liszt,  he  was 
in  such  high  spirits  that  it  was  as  if  he  had  suddenly 
become  twenty  years  younger.  A  student  from  the 
Stuttgardt  conservatory  played  a  Liszt  Concerto.  His 
name  is  V.,  and  he  is  dreadfully  nervous.  Liszt  kept 
up  a  little  running  fire  of  satire  all  the  time  he  was 
playing,  but  in  a  good-natured  way.  I  shouldn't  have 
minded  it  if  it  had  been  I.  In  fc^ct,  I  think  it  would 
have  inspired  me;  but  poor  V.  hardly  knew  whether 


LISZT  ILLUSTRATING.  225 

he  was  on  his  head  or  on  his  feet.  It  was  too  funny. 
Everything  that  Liszt  says  is  so  striking.  For  instance, 
in  one  place  where  V.  was  playing  the  melody  rather 
feebly,  Liszt  suddenly  took  his  seat  at  the  piano  and 
v/  said,  "  When  I  play,  I  always  play  for  the  people  in 
the  gallery  [by  the  gallery  he  meant  the  cock-loft, 
where  the  rabble  always  sit,  and  where  the  places  cost 
next  to  nothing],  so  that  those  persons  who  pay  only 
five  groschens  for  their  seat  also  hear  something." 
Then  he  began,  and  I  wish  you  could  have  heard  him ! 
The  sound  didn't  seem  to  be  very  loud,  but  it  was  pen- 
etrating and  far-reaching.  When  he  had  finished,  he 
raised  one  hand  in  the  air,  and  you  seemed  to  see  all 
the  people  in  the  gallery  drinking  in  the  sound.  That 
is  the  way  Liszt  teaches  you.  He  presents  an  idea  to 
you,  and  it  takes  fast  hold  of  your  mind  and  sticks 
there.  Music  is  such  a  real,  visible  thing  to  him,  that 
he  always  has  a  symbol,  instantly,  in  the  material 
world  to  express  his  idea.  One  day,  when  I  was  play- 
ing, I  made  too  much  movement  with  my  hand  in  a 
rotatory  sort  of  a  passage  where  it  was  difficult  to 
avoid  it.  "  Keep  your  hand  still,  Fr^ulein,"  said  Liszt ; 
" dotibt  make  omelette P I  I  couldn't  help  laughing,  it 
hit  me  on  the  head  so  nicely.  He  is  far  too  sparing 
of  his  playing,  unfortunately,  and,  like  Tausig,  only 
sits  down  and  plays  a  few  bars  at  a  time,  generally. 
It  is  dreadful  when  he  stops,  just  as  you  are  at  the 
height  of  your  enjoyment,  but  he  is  so  thoroughly 
blase  that  he  doesn't  care  to  show  off,  and  doesn't  like 
to  have  any  one  pay  him  a  compliment.  Even  at  the 
court  it  annoyed  him  so  that  the  Grand  Duchess  told 


224  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

people  to  take  no  notice  when  he  rose  from  the 
piano. 

On  the  same  day  that  Lizst  was  in  such  high  good- 
humour,  a  strange  lady  and  her  husband  were  there  who 
had  made  a  long  journey  to  Weimar,  in  the  hope  of 
hearing  him  play.  She  waited  patiently  for  a  long 
time  through  the  lesson,  and  at  last  Liszt  took  com- 
passion on  her,  and  sat  down  with  his  favourite  remark 
that  "  the  young  ladies  played  a  great  deal  better  than 
he  did,  but  he  would  try  his  best  to  imitate  them," 
and  then  played  something  of  his  own  so  wonderfully, 
that  when  he  had  finished  we  all  stood  there  like  posts, 
feeling  that  there  was  nothing  to  be  said.  But  he,  as 
if  he  feared  we  might  burst  out  into  eulogy,  got  up  in- 
stantly and  went  over  to  a  friend  of  his  who  was  stand- 
ing there,  and  who  lives  on  an  estate  near  Weimar, 
and  said,  in  the  most  commonplace  tone  imaginable, 
*'  By  the  way,  how  about  those  eggs?  Are  you  going 
to  send  me  some  ?"  It  seems  to  be  not  only  a  pro- 
found bore  to  him,  but  really  a  sort  of  sensitiveness 
on  his  part.  How  he  can  bear  to  hear  us  play,  I  can- 
not imagine.  It  must  grate  on  his  ear  terribly,  I  think, 
because  everything  must  sound  expressionless  to  him 
in  comparison  with  his  own  marvellous  conception.  I 
assure  you,  no  matter  how  beautifully  we  play  any 
piece,  the  minute  Liszt  plays  it,  you  would  scarcely 
recognize  it !  His  touch  and  his  peculiar  use  of  the 
pedal  are  two  secrets  of  his  playing,  and  then  he  seems 
to  dive  down  in  the  most  hidden  thoughts  of  the  com- 
poser, and  fetch  them  up  to  the  surface,  so  that  they 
gleam  out  at  you  one  by  one,  like  stars ! 


VON  BtJLOW.  225 


The  more  I  see  and  hear  Liszt,  the  more  I  am  lost 
in  amazement !  I  can  neither  eat  nor  sleep  on  those 
days  that  I  go  to  him.  All  my  musical  studies  till 
now  have  been  a  mere  going  to  school,  a  preparation 
for  him.  I  often  think  of  what  Tausig  said  once : 
"Oh,  compared  with  Liszt,  we  other  artists  are  all 
blockheads."  I  did  not  believe  it  at  the  time,  but  I've 
seen  the  truth  of  it,  and  in  studying  Liszt's  playing,  I 
can  see  where  Tausig  got  many  of  his  own  wonderful 
peculiarities.  I  think  he  was  the  most  like  Liszt  of 
all  the  army  that  have  had  the  privilege  of  his  instruc- 
tion.— I  began  this  letter  on  Sunday,  and  it  is  now 
Tuesday.  Yesterday  I  went  to  Liszt,  and  found  that 
Bulow  had  just  arrived.  None  of  the  other  scholars 
had  come,  for  a  wonder,  and  I  was  just  going  away, 
when  Liszt  came  out,  asked  me  to  come  in  a  moment, 
and  introduced  me  to  Btilow.  There  I  was,  all  alone 
with  these  two  great  artists  in  Liszt's  salon!  Wasn't 
that  a  situation?  I  only  stayed  a  few  minutes,  of 
course,  though  I  should  have  liked  to  spend  hours, 
but  our  conversation  was  in  the  highest  degree  amus- 
ing while  I  was  there.  Billow  had  just  returned  from 
his  grand  concert  tour,  and  had  been  in  London  for 
the  first  time.  In  a  few  months  he  had  given  one 
hundred  and  twenty  concerts !  He  is  a  fascinating 
creature,  too,  like  all  these  master  artists,  but  entirely 
different  from  Liszt,  being  small,  quick,  and  airy  in 
/lis  movements,  and  having  one  of  the  boldest  and 
proudest  foreheads  I  ever  saw.  He  looks  like  strength 
of  will  personified.  Liszt  gazed  at  "  his  Hans,"  as  he 
calls  him,  with  the  fondest  pride,  and  seemed  perfectly 
15 


226  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMAKY. 

happy  over  his  arrival.  It  was  like  his  beautiful 
courtesy  to  call  me  in  and  introduce  me  to  Btilow  in- 
stead of  letting  me  go  away.  He  thought  I  had  come 
to  play  to  him,  and  was  unwilling  to  have  me  take 
that  trouble  for  nothing,  though  he  must  have  wished 
me  in  Jericho.  You  would  think  I  paid  him  a  hun- 
dred dollars  a  lesson,  instead  of  his  condescending  to 
SRcrifice  his  valuable  time  to  me  for  nothing. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

Liszt's  Expression    in    Playing.      Liszt  on  Conseryatorie& 
Ordeal  of  Liszt's  Lessons.     Liszt's  Kindness. 

Weimak,  JuTie  19, 1873. 
In  Liszt  I  can  at  last  say  that  my  ideal  in  something 
has  been  realized.  He  goes  far  beyond  all  that  I 
expected.  Anything  so  perfectly  beautiful  as  he  looks 
when  he  sits  at  the  piano  I  never  saw,  and  yet  he  is 
almost  an  old  man  now.*  I  enjoy  him  as  I  would  an 
exquisite  work  of  art.  His  personal  magnetism  is 
immense,  and  I  can  scarcely  bear  it  when  he  plays. 
He  can  make  me  cry  all  he  chooses,  and  that  is  saying 
a  good  deal,  because  I've  heard  so  much  music,  and 
never  have  been  affected  by  it.  Even  Joachim,  whom 
I  think  divine,  never  moved  me.  When  Liszt  plays 
anything  pathetic,  it  sounds  as  if  he  had  been  through 
everything,  and  opens  all  one's  wounds  afresh.  All 
that  one  has  ever  suffered  comes  before  one  again. 
Who  was  it  that  I  heard  say  once,  that  years  ago  he 
saw  Clara  Schumann  sitting  in  tears  near  the  plat- 
form, during  one  of  Liszt's  performances? — Liszt 
knows  well  ^  the  influence  he  has  on  people,  for 
he  always  fixes  his  eyes  on  some  one  of  us  when  he 
plays,  and  I  believe  he  tries  to  wring  our  hearts. 
When  he  plays  a  passage,  and  goes  pearling  down  the 
key-board,  he  often  looks  over  at  me  and  smiles,  to  see 
whether  I  am  appreciating  it. 

*  LiBzt  was  bom  in  1811. 

(227) 


228  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

But  I  doubt  if  he  feels  any  particular  emotion  him- 
self, when  he  is  piercing  you  through  with  his  rendering. 
He  is  simply  hearing  every  tone,  knowing  exactly  what 
effect  he  wishes  to  produce  and  how  to  do  it.  In  fact, 
he  is  practically  two  persons  in  one — the  listener  and 
the  performer.  But  what  immense  self-command  that 
implies !  No  matter  how  fast  he  plays  you  always 
feel  that  there  is  "plenty  of  time" — no  need  to  be 
anxious  !  You  might  as  well  try  to  move  one  of  the 
pyramids  as  fluster  him.  Tausig  possessed  this  re- 
pose in  a  technical  way,  and  his  touch  was  marvellous ; 
but  he  never  drew  the  tears  to  your  eyes.  He  could 
not  wind  himself  through  all  the  subtle  labyrinths  of 
the  heart  as  Liszt  does. 

Liszt  does  such  bewitching  little  things !  The  other 
day,  for  instance,  FrSulein  Gaul  was  playing  some- 
thing to  him,  and  in  it  were  two  runs,  and  after  each 
run  two  staccato  chords.  She  did  them  most  beauti- 
fully, and  struck  the  chords  immediately  after.  "  No, 
no,"  said  Liszt,  "  after  you  make  a  run  you  must  wait 
a  minute  before  you  strike  the  chords,  as  if  in  admir- 
ation of  your  own  performance.  You  must  pause,  as 
if  to  say,  'How  nicely  I  did  that.'"  Then  he  sat 
down  and  made  a  run  himself,  waited  a  second,  and 
then  struck  the  two  chords  in  the  treble,  saying  as  he 
did  so  "Bra-vo,"  and  then  he  played  again,  struck 
the  other  chord,  and  said  again  "  Bra-vo,"  and  posi- 
tively, it  was  as  if  the  piano  had  softly  applauded ! 
That  is  the  way  he  plays  everything.  It  seems  as  if 
the  piano  were  speaking  with  a  human  tongue. 

Our  class  has  swelled  to  about  a  dozen  persons  now, 


LISZT  ANGRY.  229 


and  a  good  many  others  come  and  play  to  him  once  or 
twice  and  then  go.  As  I  wrote  to  L.  the  other  day, 
that  dear  little  scholar  of  Henselt,  Fraulein  Kahrer, 
was  one,  but  she  only  stayed  three  da^'s.  She  was  a 
most  interesting  little  creature,  and  told  some  funny 
stories  about  Henselt,  who  she  says  has  a  most  violent 
temper,  and  is  very  severe.  She  said  that  one  day  he 
was  giving  a  lesson  to  Princess  Katherina  (whoever 
that  is),  and  he  was  so  e-nraged  over  her  playing  that 
he  snatched  away  the  music,  and  dashed  it  to  the 
ground.  The  Princess,  however,  did  not  lose  her 
equanimity,  but  folded  her  arms  and  said,  ''Who 
shall  pick  it  up?"  And  he  had  to  bend  and  restore 
it  to  its  place. 

I've  never  seen  Liszt  look  angry  but  once,  but 
then  he  was  terrific.  Like  a  lion !  It  was  one  day 
when  a  student  from  the  Stuttgardt  conservatory  at- 
tempted to  play  the  Sonata  Appassionato.  He  had  a 
good  deal  of  technique,  and  a  moderately  good  con- 
ception of  it,  but  still  he  was  totally  inadequate  to  the 
work — and  indeed,  only  a  mighty  artist  like  Tausig  or 
Btilow  ought  to  attempt  to  play  it.  It  was  a  hot  after- 
noon, and  the  clouds  had  been  gathering  for  a  storm. 
As  the  Stuttgardter  played  the  opening  notes  of 
the  sonata,  the  tree-tops  suddenly  waved  wildly,  and  a 
low  growl  of  thunder  was  heard  muttering  in  the  dis- 
tance. "  Ah,"  said  Liszt,  who  was  standing  at  the 
window,  with  his  delicate  quickness  of  perception,  "  a 
fitting  accompaniment."  (You  know  Beethoven  wrote 
the  Appassionata  one  night  when  he  was  caught  in  a 
thunder-storm.)     If  Liszt  had  only  played  it  himself, 


330  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

the  whole  thing  would  have  been  like  a  poem.  But  he 
walked  up  and  down  the  room  and  forced  himself  to 
listen,  though  he  could  scarcely  bear  it,  I  could  see. 
A  few  times  he  pushed  the  student  aside  and  played 
a  few  bars  himself,  and  we  saw  the  passion  leap  up 
into  his  face  like  a  glare  of  sheet  lightning.  Any- 
thing so  magnificent  as  it  was,  the  little  that  he  did 
play,  and  the  startling  individuality  of  his  concep- 
tion, I  never  heard  or  imagined.  I  felt  as  if  I  did  not 
know  whether  I  were  "in  the  body  or  out  of  the  body." 
— Glorious  Being  !  He  is  a  two-edged  sword  that 
cuts  through  everything. 

The  Stuttgardter  made  some  such  glaring  mistakes, 
not  in  the  notes,  but  in  rhythm,  etc.,  that  at  last  Liszt 
burst  out  with,  ^^You  come  from  Stuttgardt,  and  play 
like  thatr  and  then  he  went  on  in  a  tirade  against  con- 
servatories and  teachers  in  general.  He  was  like  a 
thunder-storm  himself.  He  frowned,  and  bent  his  head, 
and  his  long  hair  fell  over  his  face,  while  the  poor  Stutt- 
gardter sat  there  like  a  beaten  hound.  Oh,  it  was  awful ! 
If  it  had  been  I,  I  think  I  should  have  withered  entirely 
away,  for  Liszt  is  always  so  amiable  that  the  contrast  was 
all  the  stronger. — ^^Aher  das  geht  Sie  nichts  an  (But  this 
does  not  concern  you),"  said  he,  in  a  concihatory  tone, 
suddenly  stopping  himself  and  smiling.  "  Spielen  Sie 
weiter  (Play  on)." — He  meant  that  it  was  not  at  the 
student  but  at  the  conservatories  that  he  had  been 
angry. 

Liszt  hasn't  the  nervous  irritability  common  to  artists, 
but  on  the  contrary  his  disposition  is  the  most  exquisite 
and  tranquil  in  the  world.    We  have  been  there  inces- 


ORDEAL  OF  LISZT'S  LESSONS.  231 

santly,  and  I've  never  seen  him  ruffled  except  two  or 
three  times,  and  then  ho  was  tired  and  not  himself,  and 
it  was  a  most  transient  thing.  When  I  think  what  a 
Kttle  savage  Tausig  often  was,  and  how  cuttingly  sarcastic 
KuUak  could  be  at  times,  I  am  astonished  that  Liszt  so 
rarely  loses  his  temper.  He  has  the  power  of  turning 
the  best  side  of  every  one  outward,  and  also  the  most 
marvellous  and  instant  appreciation  of  what  that  side  is. 
If  there  is  anything  in  you,  you  may  be  sure  that  Liszt 
will  know  it.  Whether  he  chooses  to  let  you  think  he 
does,  may,  however,  be  another  matter. 


Weimar,  July  15, 1873. 
Liszt  is  such  an  immense,  inspiring  force  that  one  has 
to  try  and  stride  forward  with  him  at  double  rate, 
even  if  with  double  expenditure,  too !  To-day  I'm  more 
dead  than  alive,  as  we  had  a  lesson  from  him  yesterday 
that  lasted  four  hours.  There  were  twenty  artists  present, 
all  of  whom  were  anxious  to  play,'"and  as  he  was  in  high 
good-humour,  he  played  ever  so  much  himself  in  between. 
It  was  perfectly  magnificent,  but  exhausting  and  exciting 
to  the  last  degree.  When  I  come  home  from  the  lessons  I 
fling  myself  on  the  sofa,  and  feel  as  if  I  never  wanted  to 
get  up  again.  It  is  a  fearful  day's  work  every  time  I  go 
to  him.  First,  four  hours'  practice  in  the  morning. 
Then  a  nervous,  anxious  feeling  that  takes  away  my  appe- 
tite, and  prevents  me  from  eating  my  dinner.  And  then 
several  hours  at  liszt's,  where  one  succession  of  concertos, 
fantasias,  and  all  sorts  of  tremendous  things  are  played. 
You  never  know  before  whom  you  must  play  there,  for 


232  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

it  is  the  musical  headquarters  of  the  world.  Directors 
of  conservatories,  composers,  artists,  aristocrats,  all  come 
in,  and  you  have  to  bear  the  brunt  of  it  as  best  you  can. 
The  first  month  I  was  here,  when  there  were  only  five  of 
us,  it  was  quite  another  matter,  but  now  the  room  is 
crowded  every  time. 

Liszt  gave  a  matinee  the  other  day  at  which  I  played 
a  "  Soiree  de  Vienne,"  by  Tausig — awfully  hard,  but  very 
brilliant  and  peculiar.  I  don't  know  how  I  ever  got 
through  it,  for  I  had  only  been  studying  it  a  few  days, 
and  didn't  even  know  it  by  heart,  nor  had  I  played  it  to 
Liszt.  He  only  told  me  the  evening  before,  too,  about 
eight  o'clock — "  To-morrow  I  give  a  matinee ;  bring  your 
Soiree  de  Vienne."  I  rushed  home  and  practiced  till 
ten,  and  then  I  got  up  early  the  next  morning  and  prac- 
ticed a  few  hours.  The  matinee  was  at  eleven  o'clock. 
First,  Liszt  played  himself,  then  a  young  lady  sang  sev- 
eral songs,  then  there  was  a  piece  for  piano  and  flute 
played  by  Liszt  and  a  flutist,  and  then  I  came.  I  was 
just  as  frightened  as  I  could  be !  Metzdorf  (my  Bus- 
sian  friend)  and  Urspruch  sat  down  by  me  to  give  me 
courage,  and  to  turn  the  leaves,  but  Liszt  insisted  upon 
turning  himself,  and  stood  behind  me  and  did  it  in  his 
dexterous  way.  He  says  it  is  an  art  to  turn  the  leaves 
properly !  He  was  so  kind,  and  whenever  I  did  anything 
well  he  would  call  out  "charmantr  to  encourage  me. 
It  is  considered  a  great  compliment  to  be  asked  to  play 
at  a  matinee,  and  I  don't^^know  why  Liszt  paid  it  to  me 
at  the  expense  of  others  who  were  there  who  play  far 
better  than  I  do — among  them  a  young  lady  from  Nor- 
way, lately  come,  who  is  a  most  superb  pianist.      She 


LISZT  COMPASSIONATE.  233 

was  a  pupil  of  Kullak's,  too,  but  it  is  four  years  since  she 
left  him,  and  she  has  been  concertizing  a  good  deal 
Yesterday  she  played  Schumann's  A  minor  concerto 
magnificently.  I  was  surprised  that  Liszt  had  not 
selected  her,  but  one  can  never  tell  what  to  expect 
from  Liszt.  With  him  "  nothing  is  to  be  presumed  on 
or  despaired  of  " — as  the  proverb  says.  He  is  so  full  of 
moods  and  phases  that  you  have  to  have  a  very  sharp 
perception  even  to  begin  to  understand  him,  and  he 
can  cut  you  aU  up  fine  without  your  ever  guessing 
it.  He  rarely  mortifies  any  one  by  an  open  snub,  but 
what  is  perhaps  worse,  he  manages  to  let  the  rest  of  the 
class  know  what  he  is  thinking  while  the  poor  victim 
remains  quite  in  darkness  about  it ! — ^Yes,  he  can  do  very 
cruel  things. 

After  all,  though,  people  generally  have  their  own 
assurance  to  thank,  or  their  own  want  of  tact,  when  they 
do  not  get  on  with  Liszt.  If  they  go  to  him  full  of 
themselves,  or  expecting  to  make  an  impression  on 
him,  or  merely  for  the  sake  of  saying  they  have  been 
with  him,  instead  of  presenting  themselves  to  sit  at  his 
feet  in  humility,  as  they  ought,  and  learn  whatever  he  is 
willing  to  impart — ^he  soon  finds  it  out,  and  treats  them 
accordingly.  Some  one  once  asked  Liszt,  what  he  would 
have  been  had  he  not  been  a  musician.  "The  first 
diplomat  in  Europe,"  was  the  reply.  With  this  Machia- 
vellian bent  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  sometimes 
indulges  himself  in  playing  off  the  conceited  or  the 
obtuse  for  the  benefit  of  the  bystanders.  But  the  real 
basis  of  his  nature  is  compassion.  The  bruised  reed  he 
does  not  break,  nor  the  humble  and  docile  heart  despise! 


234  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

Fraulein  Gaul  tells  a  characteristic  story  about  the 
"  Meister,"  as  we  call  Liszt.  When  she  first  came  to  him 
a  year  or  two  ago,  she  brought  him  one  day  Chopin's  B 
flat  minor  Scherzo — one  of  those  stock  pieces  that 
every  artist  must  learn,  and  that  has  also  been  thrummed 
to  death  by  countless  tyros.  Liszt  looked  at  it,  and 
to  her  fright  and  dismay  cried  out  in  a  fit  of  impatience, 
"  No,  I  wonH  hear  it !"  and  dashed  it  angrily  into  the 
corner.  The  next  day  he  went  to  see  her,  apologized  for 
his  outburst  of  temper,  and  said  that  as  a  penance  for  it 
he  would  force  himself  to  give  her  not  one,  but  two  or 
three  lessons  on  the  Scherzo,  and  in  the  most  minute 
and  careful  manner — which  accordingly  he  did !  Fancy 
any  music  teacher  you  ever  heard  of,  so  humbling  him- 
self to  a  little  girl  of  fifteen,  and  then  remember  that 
Tausig,  the  greatest  of  modern  virtuosi,  said  of  Liszt, 
**  No  mortal  can  measure  himself  with  Liszt.  He  dwells 
upon  a  solitary  height." 

But  you  need  not  fear  that  I  am  "giving  up  American 
standards"  because  I  reverence  Liszt  so  boundlessly. 
Ever)rthing  is  topsy-turvy  in  Europe  according  to  our 
moral  ideas,  and  they  don't  have  what  we  call  "  men " 
over  here.  But  they  do  have  artists  that  we  cannot  ap- 
proach !  It  is  as  a  Master  in  Art  that  I  look  at  and  write 
of  Liszt,  and  his  mere  presence  is  to  his  pupils  such 
stimulus  and  joy,  that  when  I  leave  him  I  shall  feel  I 
have  left  the  best  part  of  my  life  behind ! 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Liszt's  Compositions.    His  Playing  and  Teaching  of  Beetho. 

ven.    His  "Effects"  in  Piano-playing.     Excursion 

to  Jena.    A  New  Music  Master. 

Weimar,  July  24, 1873. 

liszt  is  going  away  to-day.  He  was  to  have  left  sev- 
eral days  ago,  but  the  Emperor  of  Austria  or  Russia  (I 
don't  know  which),  came  to  visit  the  Grand  Duke,  and 
of  course  Liszt  was  obliged  to  be  on  hand  and  to  spend 
a  day  with  them.  He  is  such  a  grandee  himseK  that 
kings  and  emperors  are  quite  matters  of  course  to  him. 
Never  was  a  man  so  courted  and  spoiled  as  he !  The 
Grand  Duchess  herself  frequently  visits  him.  But  he 
never  allows  anyone  to  ask  him  to  play,  and  even  she 
doesn't  venture  it.  That  is  the  only  point  in  which  one 
sees  Liszt's  sense  of  his  own  greatness;  otherwise  his 
manner  is  remarkably  unassuming. 

Liszt  will  be  gone  until  the  middle  of  August,  and  I 
shall  be  thankful  to  have  a  few  weeks  of  repose,  and  to 
be  able  to  study  more  quietly.  With  him  one  is  at  high 
pressure  all  the  time,  and  I  have  gained  a  good  many 
more  ideas  from  him  than  I  can  work  up  in  a  hurry.  In 
fact,  Liszt  has  revealed  to  me  an  entirely  new  idea  of 
piano-playing.  He  is  a  wonderful  composer,  by  the  way, 
and  that  is  what  I  was  unprepared  for  in  him.  His  ora- 
torio of  Christus  was  brought  out  here  this  summer,  and 
many  strangers  and  celebrities  came  to  hear  it,  Wagner 

(235) 


236  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

among  others.  It  was  magnificent,  and  one  of  the 
noblest,  and  decidedly  the  grandest  oratorio  that  I  ever 
heard.  I've  never  had  time  to  write  home  about  it,  for 
I  felt  that  it  required  a  dissertation  in  itself  to  do  it  jus- 
tice. I  wish  it  could  be  performed  in  Boston,  for  his 
orchestral  and  choral  works,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  make 
their  way  very  slowly  in  Germany.  "  Liszt  helped  .Wag- 
ner," said  he  to  me,  sadly,  "but  who  will  help  Liszt? 
though,  compared  with  Opera  it  is  as  much  harder  for 
Oratorio  to  conquer  a  place  as  it  is  for  a  pianist  to 
achieve  success  when  compared  to  a  singer."  So  he 
feels  as  if  things  were  against  him,  though  his  heart  and 
soul  are  so  bound  up  in  sacred  music,  that  he  told  me  it 
had  become  to  him  "  the  only  thing  worth  living  for." 
He  really  seems  to  care  almost  nothing  for  his  piano- 
playing  or  for  his  piano  compositions. 

And  yet,  what  beauty  is  there  in  those  compositions ! 
In  Berlin  I  had  always  been  taught  that  Liszt  was  a 
would-be  composer,  that  he  could  not  write  a  melody, 
that  he  had  no  originality,  and  that  his  compositions 
were  merely  glitter  to  dazzle  the  eyes  of  the  public. 
How  unjust  and  untrue  have  I  found  all  these  asser- 
tions to  be  !  Here  I  have  an  opportunity  of  hearing 
his  piano  works  en  masse,  and  day  by  day  (since  all 
the  young  artists  are  playing  them),  and  my  previous 
ideas  have  been  entirely  reversed.  If  Liszt  is  anything, 
he  is  original.  One  can  see  that  at  a  glance,  simply 
by  imagining  his  music  taken  out.  Where  is  there 
anything  that  would  fill  its  place?  When  artists  wish 
to  make  an  "effect"  and  stir  up  the  public — "to  fuse 
the  leaden  thousands,"  as  Chopin  expressed  it — what 


LISZT'S  COMPOSITIONS.  237 

do  they  play?  Liszt  ! — Not  only  is  his  music  brilliant 
— not  only  does  he  pour  this  wealth  of  pearls  and  dia- 
monds down  the  key-board,  but  his  pieces  rise  to  great 
climaxes,  are  grandiose  in  style,  overleap  all  bound- 
aries, and  whirl  you  away  with  the  venemence  of  pas- 
sion. Then  what  lightness  of  touch  in  the  lesser  mor- 
ceaux,  where  he  is  often  the  acme  of  tenderness,  grace 
and  fairy-like  sportiyeness,  while  in  the  melancholy 
ones,  what  subtle  feeling  after  the  emotions  curled  up 
in  the  remote  corners  of  the  heart !  They  are  so  rich  in 
harmony,  so  weird,  so  wild,  that  when  you  hear  them 
you  are  like  a  sea-weed  cast  upon  the  bosom  of  the 
ocean.  And  then  what  could  be  more  deep  and  poetic 
than  Liszt's  transcriptions  of  Schubert's  and  Wagner's 
songs  ?  They  are  altogether  exquisite.  Finally,  Liszt's 
compositions  stand  the  severest  test  of  merit.  They 
wear  well.  You  can  play  them  a  long  time  and  never 
weary  of  them.  In  short,  they  embrace  every  element 
except  the  classic,  and  the  question  is,  whether  these 
airy  or  intense  ideas  that  appeal  to  you  through  their 
veils  of  shimmer  and  sheen  are  not  a  sort  of  classics 
in  their  own  way ! 

Liszt's  Ohristus  is  arranged  for  piano  for  four  hands, 
and  I  wish  I  had  it,  and  also  Bulow's  great  edi- 
tion of  Beethoven's  sonatas — Oh  !  you  cannot  conceive 
anything  like  Liszt's  playing  of  Beethoven.  When  he 
plays  a  sonata  it  is  as  if  the  composition  rose  from  the 
dead  and  stood  transfigured  before  you.  You  ask 
yourself,  "Did  J  ever  play  that?"  But  it  bores  him 
so  dreadfully  to  hear  the  sonatas,  that  though  I've 
heard  him  teach  a  good  many,  I  haven't  had  the  oour- 


238  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

age  to  bring  him  one.  I  suppose  he  is  sick  of  the  sound 
of  them,  or  perhaps  it  is  because  he  feels  obliged  to  be 
conscientious  in  teaching  Beethoven  ! 

When  one  of  the  young  pianists  brings  Liszt  a  so- 
nata, he  puts  on  an  expression  of  resignation  and  gen- 
erally begins  a  half  protest  which  he  afterward  thinks 
better  of. — "  Well,  go  on,"  he  will  say,  and  then  he 
proceeds  to  be  very  strict.  He  always  teaches  Bee- 
thoven with  notes,  which  shows  how  scrupulous  he  is 
about  him,  for,  of  course,  he  knows  all  the  sonatas  by 
heart.  He  has  Billow's  edition,  which  he  opens  and 
lays  on  the  end  of  the  grand  piano.  Then  as  he  walks 
up  and  down  he  can  stop  and  refer  to  it  and  point  out 
passages,  as  they  are  being  played,  to  the  rest  of  the 
class.  Bulow  probably  got  many  of  his  ideas  from 
Liszt.  One  day  when  Mr.  Orth  was  playing  the  AUe- 
grd  of  the  Sonata  Op.  110,  Liszt  insisted  upon  having 
it  done  in  a  particular  way,  and  made  him  go  back 
and  repeat  it  over  and  over  again.  One  line  of  it  is 
particularly  hard.  Liszt  made  every  one  in  the  class 
sit  down  and  try  it.  Most  of  them  failed,  which 
amused  him. — "Ah,  yes,"  said  he,  laughing,  "Jwhen  I 
once  begin  to  play  the  pedagogue  I  am  not  to  be  out- 
done !"  and  then  he  related  as  an  illustration  of  his 
"pedagogism"  a  little  anecdote  of  a  former  pupil  of 
his,  now  an  eminent  artist.  "  I  liked  young  M.  very 
much,"  said  he.  "  He  played  beautifully,  but  he  was 
inclined  to  be  lazy  and  to  take  things  easily.  One 
morning  he  brought  me  Chopin's  E  minor  concerto, 
and  he  rather  skimmed  over  that  difficult  passage  in  the 
middle  of  the  first  movement  as  if  he  hadn't  taken  the 


CHOPIN  A  MIMIC.  239 

trouble  really  to  study  it.  His  execution  Tvas  not  clean. 
So  I  thought  I  would  give  him  a  lesson,  and  I  kept  him 
playing  those  two  pages  over  and  over  for  an  hour 
or  two  until  he  had  mastered  them.  His  arms 
must  have  been  ready  to  break  when  he  got 
through  !  At  the  next  lesson  there  was  no  M.  I  sent 
to  know  why  he  did  not  appear.  He  replied  that  he 
had  been  out  hunting  and  had  hurt  his  arm  so  that  he 
could  not  play.  At  the  lesson  following  he  accord- 
ingly presented  himself  with  his  arm  in  a  sling.  But 
I  always  suspected  it  was  a  stratagem  on  his  part  to 
avoid  playing,  and  that  nothing  really  ailed  him.  He 
had  had  enough  for  one  while,"  added  Liszt,  with  a 
mischievous  smile. 

On  Monday  I  had  a  most  delightful  tete-a-tete  with 
Liszt,  quite  by  chance.  I  had  occasion  to  call  upon 
him  for  something,  and,  strange  to  say,  he  was  alofte, 
sitting  by  his  table  and  writing.  Generally  all  sorts 
of  people  are  up  there.  He  insisted  upon  my  staying  a 
while,  and  we  had  the  most  amusing  and  entertaining 
conversation  imaginable.  It  was  the  first  time  I  ever 
heard  Liszt  really  talk,  for  he  contents  himself  mostly 
with  making  little  jests.  He  is  full  of  esprit.  We 
were  speaking  of  the  faculty  of  mimicry,  and  he  told 
me  such  a  funny  little  anecdote  about  Chopin.  He 
said  that  when  he  and  Chopin  were  young  together, 
somebody  told  him  that  Chopin  had  a  remarkable 
talent  for  mimicry,  and  so  he  said  to  Chopin,  "  Come 
round  to  my  rooms  this  evening  and  show  off  this 
talent  of  yours."  So  Chopin  came.  He  had  purchased 
a  blonde  wig   ("  I  was  very  blonde  at  that  time,"  said 


240  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

Liszt),  which  he  put  on,  and  got  himself  up  in  one  of 
Liszt's  suits.  Presently  an  acquaintance  of  Liszt's  came 
in,  Chopin  went  to  meet  him  instead  of  Liszt,  and 
took  off  his  voice  and  manner  so  perfectly,  that 
the  man  actually  mistook  him  for  Liszt,  and  made  an 
appointment  with  him  for  the  next  day  — "and  there  I 
was  in  the  room,"  said  Liszt.  Wasn't  that  remark- 
able? 

Another  evening  I  was  there  about  twilight  and 
Liszt  sat  at  the  piano  looking  through  a  new  oratorio, 
which  had  just  come  out  in  Paris  upon  "  Chris 
the  same  subject  that  his  own  oratorio  was  on.  He 
asked  me  to  turn  for  him,  and  evidently  was  not  inter- 
ested, for  he  would  skip  whole  pages  and  begin  again, 
here  and  there.  There  was  only  a  single  lamp,  and 
that  rather  a  dim  one,  so  that  the  room  was  all  in 
shadow,  and  Liszt  wore  his  Merlin-like  aspect.  I  asked 
him  to  tell  me  how  he  produced  a  certain  effect  he 
makes  in  his  arrangement  of  the  ballad  in  "Wagner's 
Flying  Dutchman.  He  looked  very  "^n"  as  the 
French  say,  but  did  not  reply.  He  never  gives  a  direct 
answer  to  a  direct  question,  "  Ah,"  said  I,  "you  won't 
tell."  He  smiled,  and  then  immediately  played  the 
passage.  It  was  a  long  arpeggio,  and  the  effect  he  made 
was,  as  I  had  supposed,  a  pedal  effect.  He  kept  the 
pedal  down  throughout,  and  played  the  beginning  of 
the  passage  in  a  grand  rolling  sort  of  manner,  and 
then  all  the  rest  of  it  with  a  very  pianissimo  touch, 
and  so  lightly,  that  the  continuity  of  the  arpeggios  was 
destroyed,  and  the  notes  seemed  to  be  just  strewn  in, 
as  if  you  broke  a  wreath  of  flowers  and  scattered  them 


«  STORMS  ARE  MY  FORTE".  241 

according  to  your  fancy.  It  is  a  most  striking  and 
beautiful  effect,  and  I  told  liim  I  didn't  see  how  he 
ever  thought  of  it.  "  Oh,  I've  invented  a  great  many 
things,"said  he,indifferently — "this,f or  instance," — and 
he  began  playing  a  double  roll  of  octaves  in  chromatics 
in  the  bass  of  the  piano.  It  was  very  grand,  and  made 
the  room  reverberate.  "  Magnificent,"  said  I. "  Did  you 
ever  hear  me  do  a  storm  ?"  said  he.  "  No."  "  Ah,  you 
ought  to  hear  me  do  a  storm  !  Storms  are  my  forte  P' 
Then  to  himself  between  his  teeth,  while  a  weird  look 
came  into  his  eyes  as  if  he  could  indeed  rule  the  blast, 
"Da  KRACHEN-  die  Bdume  (Then  crash  the  trees  !)" 

How  ardently  I  wished  he  would  "play  a  storm,"  but 
of  course  he  didnH,  and  he  presently  began  to  trifle 
over  the  keys  in  his  blase  style.  I  suppose  he  couldn't 
quite  work  himself  up  to  the  effort,  but  that  look  and 
tone  told  how  Liszt  would  do  it. — Alas,  that  we  poor 
mortals  here  below  should  share  so  often  the  fate  of 
Moses,  and  have  only  a  glimpse  of  the  Promised  Land, 
and  that  without  the  consolation  of  being  Moses ! 
But  perhaps,  after  all,  the  vision  is  better  than  the 
reality.  We  see  the  whole  land,  even  if  but  at  a  dis- 
tance, instead  of  being  limited  merely  to  the  spot 
where  our  foot  treads. 

Once  again  I  saw  Liszt  in  a  similar  mood,  though 
his  expression  was  this  time  comfortably  rather  than 
wildly  destructive.  It  was  when  Fraulein  Remmertz 
was  playing  his  E  flat  concerto  to  him.  There  were 
two  grand  pianos  in  the  room,  and  she  was  sitting  at 
one,  and  he  at  the  other,  accompanying  and  interpo- 
lating as  he  felt  disposed.  Finally  they  came  to  a 
16 


342  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

place  where  there  were  a  series  of  passages  beginning 
with  both  hands  in  the  middle  of  the  piano,  and  going 
in  opposite  directions  to  the  ends  of  the  key-board, 
ending  each  time  in  a  short,  sharp  chord.  ^'  Alles 
zum  Fenster  hinaus  w  erf  en  (Pitch  everything  out  of 
the  window),"  said  he,  in  a  cozy,  easy  sort  of  way,  and 
he  began  playing  these  passages  and  giving  every  chord 
a  whack  as  if  he  were  splitting  everything  up  and  flin 
ing  it  out,  and  that  with  such  enjoyment,  that  you  f  e 
as  if  you'd  like  to  bear  a  hand,  too,  in  the  work  of  gen- 
eral demolition  !  But  I  never  shall  forget  Liszt's  look 
as  he  so  lazily  proposed  to  "  pitch  everything  out  of 
the  window."  It  reminded  me  of  the  expression  of  a 
big  tabby-cat  as  it  sits  and  purrs  away,  blinking  its 
eyes  and  seemingly  half  asleep,  when  suddenly  — !  — ! 
out  it  strikes  with  both  its  claws,  and  woe  be  to  what- 
ever is  within  its  reach  !  Perhaps,  after  all,  the  secret 
of  Liszt's  fascination  is  this  power  of  intense  and  wild 
emotion  that  you  feel  he  possesses,  together  with 
.nost  perfect  control  over  it. 

Liszt  sometimes  strikes  wrong  notes  when  he  plays, 
but  it  does  not  trouble  him  in  the  least.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  rather  enjoys  it.  He  reminds  me  of  one  of 
the  cabinet  ministers  in  Berlin,  of  whom  it  is  said  that 
he  has  an  amazing  talent  for  making  blunders,  but  a 
still  more  amazing  one  for  getting  out  of  them  and 
covering  them  up.  Of  Liszt  the  first  part  of  this  is 
not  true,  for  if  he  strikes  a  wrong  note  it  is  simply  be- 
cause he  chooses  to  be  careless.  But  the  last  part  of 
it  applies  to  him  eminently.  It  always  amuses  him 
instead  of  disconcerting  him  when  he  comes  down 


LISZT  MAKING  A  MISTAKE.  243 

squarely  wrong,  as  it  affords  him  an  opportunity  of 
displaying  his  ingenuity  and  giving  things  such  a  turn 
that  the  false  note  will  appear  simply  a  key  leading  to 
new  and  unexpected  beauties.  An  accident  of  this 
kind  happened  to  him  in  one  of  the  Sunday  matinees, 
when  the  room  was  full  of  distinguished  people  and 
of  his  pupils.  He  was  rolling  up  the  piano  in  arpeg- 
gios in  a  very  grand  manner  indeed,  when  he  struck  a 
semi-tone  short  of  the  high  note  upon  which  he  had 
intended  to  end.  I  caught  my  breath  and  wondered 
whether  he  was  going  to  leave  us  like  that,  in  mid-air, 
as  it  were,  and  the  harmony  unresolved,  or  whether  he 
would  be  reduced  to  the  humiliation  of  correcting  him- 
self like  ordinary  mortals,  and  taking  the  right  chord. 
A  half  smile  came  over  his  face,  as  much  as  to  say — 
"  Don't  fancy  that  this  little  thing  disturbs  me," — and 
he  instantly  went  meandering  down  the  piano  in  har- 
mony with  the  false  note  he  had  struck,  and  then  rolled 
deliberately  up  in  a  second  grand  sweep,  this  time 
striking  true.  I  never  saw  a  more  delicious  piece  of 
cleverness.  It  was  so  quick-witted  and  so  exactly 
characteristic  of  Liszt.  Instead  of  giving  you  a  chance 
to  say,  "  He  has  made  a  mistake,"  he  forced  you  to 
say,  "  He  has  shown  how  to  get  out  of  a  mistake." 

Another  day  I  heard  him  pass  from  one  piece  into 
another  by  making  the  finale  of  the  first  one  play  the 
part  of  prelude  to  the  second.  So  exquisitely  were  the 
two  woven  together  that  you  could  hardly  tell  where 
the  one  left  off  and  the  other  began. — Ah  me !  Such 
a  facile  grace !  Nobody  will  ever  equal  him,  with 
those  rolling  basses  and  those  flowery  trebles.    And 


244  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

then  his  Adagios  !  When  you  hear  him  in  one  of  those^ 
you  feel  that  his  playing  has  got  to  that  point  when 
it  is  purified  from  all  earthly  dross  and  is  an  exhala- 
tion of  the  soul  that  mounts  straight  to  heaven. 


Weimab,  August  8,  i^ 
The  other  day  we  all  made  an  excursion  to  Jena,^ 
which  is  about  three  hours'  drive  from  here.  We  went 
in  carriages  in  a  long  train,  and  pulled  up  at  a  hotel 
named  The  Bear.  There  we  took  our  second  break- 
fast. There  was  to  be  a  concert  at  five  in  a  church, 
where  some  of  Liszt's  music  was  to  be  performed. 
After  breakfast  we  went  to  the  church,  where  Liszt 
met  us,  and  the  rehearsal  took  place.  After  the  re- 
hearsal we  went  to  dinner.  We  had  three  long  tables 
which  Liszt  arranged  tp  suit  himself,  his  own  place  be- 
ing in  the  middle.  He  always  manages  every  little 
detail  with  the  greatest  tact,  and  is  very  particular 
never  to  let  two  ladies  or  two  gentlemen  sit  together, 
but  always  alternately  a  lady  and  a  gentleman.  "  Im- 
ruer  dm  bunte  Reihe  iiiachen  (Always  have  a  little 
variety),"  said  he.  The  dinner  Vviis  a  very  entertain- 
ing one  to  me,  because  I  could  converse  witli  Liszt 
and  hear  all  he  said,  as  he  was  nearly  opposite  me.  I 
was  in  very  high  spirits  that  day,  and  as  Kellerman, 
Bendix  and  Urspruch  were  all  near  me,  too,  we  had 
endless  fun.  We  had  new  potatoes  for  dinner,  boiled 
with  their  skins  on,  and  Liszt  threw  one  at  me,  and  I 
caught  it.  There  was  another  young  artist  there  from 
Brussels  named  Gurickx,  whom  I  didn't  know,  because 


GURICKX.  245 


he  spoke  only  French,  and  as  I  do  not  speak  it,  we 
had  never  exchanged  words  in  the  class.  I  wasn't 
paying  any  attention  to  him,  therefore,  when  suddenly 
my  left-hand  neighbour  touched  my  arm.  I  looked 
round  and  he  handed  me  a  flower  made  of  bread 
"  from  Monsieur  Gnrickx."  I  wish  you  could  have 
seen  it !  It  had  the  effect  of  a  tube  rose.  Every  little 
leaf  and  petal  was  as  delicately  turned  as  if  nature 
herself  had  done  it.  The  bread  was  fresh,  and  Gur- 
ickx  had  worked  it  between  his  fingers  to  the  consist- 
ency of  clay,  and  then  modelled  these  little  flowers 
which  he  stuck  on  to  a  stem.  It  was  so  artistically 
done,  and  it  was  such  a  dainty  little  thing  to  do,  that 
I  saw  at  once  that  he  was  interesting  and  that  he  pos- 
sessed that  marvellous  French  taste. 

Since  then  we  have  become  very  good  friends,  and  he 
is  teaching  me  to  speak  French.  He  plays  beautifully, 
and  was  trained  in  the  famous  Brussels  conservatory,  of 
which  Dupont  is  the  head.  Servais  also  got  his  musical 
education  there.  They  both  advise  me  to  go  there  for  a 
year,  as  Dupont  is  a  very  great  master  indeed,  and  Brus- 
sels is  the  very  home  and  centre  of  art  and  taste  of 
every  description — a  "  little  Paris  " — but  more  earnest, 
more  German.  Gurickx  went  through  the  art-school  in 
Brussels  as  well  as  the  conservatory,  so  that  he  paints  as 
well  as  plays,  and  he  had  quite  a  struggle  with  himself  to 
decide  to  which  art  he  should  devote  himself.  His  style 
is  the  grandiose  and  fiery.  Rubinstein  is  his  model, 
and  he  plays  Liszt's  Rhapsodies  as  I  never  heard  any 
one  else.  He  brings  out  all  their  power,  brilliancy  and 
careering  wildness,  and  makes  the  greatest  sensation  of 


246  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

them.  Such  tremendous  sweepmg  chords !  Liszt  him- 
self doesn't  play  the  chords  as  well  as  Gurickx ; — perhaps 
because  he  does  not  care  now  to  exert  the  strength. 

But  to  return  to  Jena.  After  dinner  Liszt  said,  "Now 
we'll  go  to  Paradise."  So  we  put  on  our  things,  and 
proceeded  to  walk  along  the  river  to  a  place  called  Par- 
adise, on  account  of  its  loveliness.  We  passed  the  Ui 
versity,  on  one  corner  of  which  is  a  tablet  with  "W.  von 
Goethe"  written  against  the  wall  of  the  room  which 
Goethe  occupied.  It  seemed  strange  to  me  to  be  passing 
the  room  of  my  beloved  Goethe,  with  our  equally 
beloved  Liszt ! — This  walk  along  the  river  was  enchant- 
ing. The  current  was  very  rapid,  and  the  willows  were 
all  blowing  in  the  breeze.  There  is  an  odd  triangular- 
shaped  hill  that  rises  on  one  side  very  boldly  and  abruptly, 
called  the  Fox's  Head.  The  way  was  under  a  double 
row  of  tall  trees,  which  met  at  the  top  and  formed  a 
green  arch  over  our  heads.  It  was  all  breeze  and  f  resl 
ness,  and  the  sunlight  struck  picturesquely  aslant  the 
hill-sides.  I  started  to  walk  with  Liszt,  but  he  was  so 
surrounded  that  it  was  difficult  to  get  near  him,  so  I 
walked  instead  with  an  interesting  young  artist  named 
0.,  who  was  at  once  extraordinarily  ugly  and  extremely 
clever. 

After  our  walk  we  went  to  the  concert,  wnich  was 
lovely,  and  then  at  seven  we  were  all  invited  to  tea  at 
the  house  of  a  friend  of  Liszt's.  He  was  a  very  tall 
man,  and  he  had  a  very  tall  and  hospitable  daughter, 
nearly  as  big  as  himself,  who  received  us  very  cordially. 
The  tea  was  all  laid  on  tables  in  the  garden,  and  the 
sausages  were  cooking  over  a  fire  made  on  the  grounds. 


A  NEW  MUSIC  MASTER.  247 

We  sat  down  pell-mell,  anywhere,  I  next  to  Liszt,  who 
kept  putting  things  on  my  plate.  When  supper  was 
over  he  retreated  to  a  little  summer  house  with  some 
of  his  friends,  to  smoke.  We  sauntered  round  the  grass 
plat  in  front  of  it  until  Liszt  called  us  to  come  in  and 
sit  by  him,  which  we  did  until  he  was  ready  to  go. 

I've  heard  of  a  new  music  master  lately.  When  my 
friend  Miss  B.  was  here,  she  told  me  that  she  had  met  a 
"  Herr  Director  Deppe"  in  Berlin,  after  I  left,  and  had 
told  him  all  about  me  and  my  struggle  to  conquer  the 
piano.  He  seemed  very  much  interested  and  said,  "0, 
if  she  had  only  come  to  me  !  Zwould  have  helped  her," 
and  from  all  I  can  hear  I  think  he  must  be  the  man 
for  me.  He  is  interested  in  Sherwood,  who  used  to 
talk  to  me  about  him  last  winter.  Sherwood  says  he 
is  wholly  disinterested  and  devoted  to  art,  and  lives 
entirely  in  music,  and  that  he  is  a  noble-hearted  man, 
and  the  "  most  musical  person  he  ever  met."  Sher- 
wood often  wavers  between  him  and  KuUak,  and  Deppe 
would  like  to  teach  Sherwood  if  he  could,  simply  out 
of  interest  for  him. — Deppe  has  a  pupil  whom  he 
has  trained  entirely  himself,  and  whom  he  is  going  to 
bring  out  next  winter.  Sherwood  says  he  never  heard 
anything  so  beautiful  as  her  playing.  She  is  spending 
the  summer  near  Deppe,  and  he  hears  her  play  the 
programme  she  is  going  to  give  in  Berlin  next  winter, 
every  day.  Think  what  immense  certainty  that  must 
give ! 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

Liszt's  Playing.     Tausig.      Excursion    to    Sondera 

Weimar,  August  23, 1873 
Liszt  has  returned  from  his  trip,  and  I  have  played 
to  him  twice  this  week,  and  am  to  go  again  on  Mon- 
day. He  praised  me  very  much  on  Tuesday,  and  said 
I  played  admirably.  I  knew  he  was  pleased,  because 
whenever  he  corrected  me  he  would  say,  "Nein,  Kind- 
chen^^  in  such  a  gentle  way !  " Kirid"  is  the  German 
for  child,  and  "Kindchen^^  is  a  diminutive,  and  when- 
ever he  calls  you  that  you  can  tell  he  has  a  leaning 
toward  you. 

This  week  is  the  first  time  that  I  have  been  able 
play  to  him  without  being  nervous,  or  that  my  fingers 
have  felt  warm  and  natural.  It  has  been  a  fearful 
ordeal,  truly,  to  play  there,  for  not  only  was  Liszt  him- 
self present,  but  such  a  crowd  of  artists,  all  ready  to 
pick  flaws  in  your  playing,  and  to  say,  "  She  hasn't  got 
much  talent."  I  am  so  glad  that  I  stayed  until  Liszt^s 
return,  for  now  the  rush  is  over,  and  he  has  much 
more  time  for  those  of  us  who  are  left,  and  plays  a 
great  deal  more  himself.  Yesterday  he  played  us  a 
study  of  Paganini's,  arranged  by  himself,  and  also  his 
Campanella.  I  longed  for  M.,  as  she  is  so  fond  of 
the  Campanella.  Liszt  gave  it  with  a  velvety  softness, 
clearness,  brilliancy  and  pearliness  of  touch  that  was 
inimitable.     And'  oh,  his  grace !  '  Nobody  can  com- 

(248) 


THE  PIANIST  M08CHELES.  249 

pare  with  him  !     Everybody  else  sounds  heavy  beside 
him ! 

However,  I  have  felt  some  comfort  in  knowing  that 
it  is  not  Liszt's  genius  alone  that  makes  him  such  a 
player.  He  has  gone  through  such  technical  studies 
as  no  one  else  has  except  Tausig,  perhaps.  He  plays 
everything  under  the  sun  in  the  way  of  JStuden — ^has 
played  them,  I  mean.  On  Tuesday  I  got'  him  talk- 
ing about  the  composers  who  were  the  fashion  when  he 
was  a  young  fellow  in  Paris — Kalkbrenner,  Herz, 
etc. — and  I  asked  him  if  he  could  not  play  us  some- 
thing by  Kalkbrenner.  "  0  yes !  I  must  have  a  few 
things  of  Kalkbrenner's  in  my  head  still,"  and  then  he 
played  part  of  a  concerto.  Afterward  he  went  on  to 
speak  of  Herz,  and  said :  "  I'll  play  you  a  little  study 
of  Herz's  that  is  infamously  hard.  It  is  a  stupid  little 
theme,"  and  then  he  played  the  theme,  "  but  now  pay 
attention."  Then  he  played  the  study  itself.  It  was 
a  most  hazardous  thing,  where  the  hands  kept  crossing 
continually  with  great  rapidity,  and  striking  notes  in 
the  most  difficult  positions.  It  made  us  all  laugh ;  and 
Liszt  hit  the  notes  every  time,  though  it  was  disgust- 
ingly hard,  and  as  he  said  himself,  "  he  used  to  get  all 
in  a  heat  over  it."  He  had  evidently  studied  it  so 
well  that  he  could  never  forget  it.  He  went  on  to 
speak  of  Moscheles  and  of  his  compositions.  He  said 
that  when  between  thirty  and  forty  years  of  age, 
Moscheles  played  superbly,  but  as  he  grew  older  he 
became  too  old-womanish  and  set  in  his  ways — and 
then  he  took  off  Moscheles,  and  played  his  Etuden  in 
his  style.     It  was  very  funny.     But  it  showed  how 


250  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

Liszt  has  studied  everything,  and  the  universality  of 
his  knowledge,  for  he  knows  Tausig's  and  Rubinstein's 
studies  as  well  as  Kalkbrenner  and  Herz.  There  can- 
not be  many  persons  in  the  world  who  keep  up^th 
the  whole  range  of  musical  literature  as  he  does. 

Liszt  loved  Tausig  as  his  own  child,  and  is  always 
delighted  when  we  play  any  of  his  music.  His 
death  was  an  awful  blow  to  Liszt,  for  he  used  to  say, 
"  He  will  be  the  inheritor  of  my  playing."  I  suppose  he 
thought  he  would  live  again  in  him,  for  he  always 
says,  '^  Never  did  such  talent  come  under  my  hands." 
I  would  give  anything  to  have  seen  them  together,  for 
Tausig  was  a  wonderfully  clever  and  captivating 
man,  and  I  can  imagine  he  must  have  fascinated 
Liszt.  They  say  he  was  the  naughtiest  boy  that  ever 
was  heard  of,  and  caused  Liszt  no  end  of  trouble  a 
vexation ;  but  he  always  forgave  him,  and  after  the 
vexation  was  past  Liszt  would  pat  him  on  the  head 
and  say,  "Carlchen,  entweder  wirst  du  ein  grosser 
Lump  oder  ein  grosser  Meister  (You'll  turn  out 
either  a  great  blockhead  or  a  great  master)."  That  is 
Liszt  all  over.  He  is  so  indulgent  that  in  considera- 
tion of  talent  he  will  forgive  anything. 

Tausig's  father,  who  was  himself  a  music-master, 
took  him  to  Liszt  when  he  was  fourteen  years  old, 
hoping  that  Liszt  would  receive  the  little  marvel  as  a 
pupil  and  protege. 

But  Liszt  would  not  even  hear  the  boy  play.  "  I 
have  had,"  he  declared  positively,  "  enough  of  child 
prodigies.  They  never  come  to  much."  Tausig's  father 
apparently  acquiesced  in  the  reply,  but  while  he  and 


LISZT  IN  CONCERT.  251 

Liszt  were  drinking  wine  and  smoking  together,  he 
managed  to  smuggle  the  child  on  to  the  piano-stool 
behind  Liszt,  and  signed  to  him  to  begin  to  play.  The 
little  Tausig  plunged  into  Chopin's  A  flat  Polonaise 
with  such  fire  and  boldness  that  Liszt  turned  his  eagle 
head,  and  after  a  few  bars  cried,  "  I  take  him !"  I 
heard  Liszt  say  once  that  he  could  not  endure  child 
prodigies.  "I  have  no  time,"  said  he,  "for  these  artists 
die  WEEDEN  sollen  (that  are  to  be)  !" 


Weimar,  Septemeber  9, 1873. 

This  week  has  been  one  of  great  excitement  in. 
Weimar,  on  account  of  the  wedding  of  the  son  of  the 
Grand  Duke.  All  sorts  of  things  have  been  going  on, 
and  the  Emperor  and  Empress  came  on  from  Berlin. 
There  have  been  a  great  many  rehearsals  at  the  theatre 
of  different  things  that  were  played,  and  of  course 
Liszt  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  arrangement  of 
the  music.  He  directed  the  Ninth  Symphony,  and 
played  twice  himself  with  orchestral  accompaniments. 
One  of  the  pieces  he  played  was  Weber's  Polonaise  in 
E  major,  and  the  other  was  one  of  his  own  Rhapsodies 
Hongroises.  Of  these  I  was  at  the  rehearsal.  When 
he  came  out  on  the  stage  the  applause  was  tremend- 
ous, and  enough  in  itself  to  excite  and  electrify  one. 
I  was  enchanted  to  have  an  opportunity  to  hear 
Liszt  as  a  concert  player.  The  director  of  the  orches- 
tra here  is  a  beautiful  pianist  and  composer  himself, 
as  well  as  a  splendid  conductor,  but  it  was  easy  to  se6 


252  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

that  he  had  to  get  all  his  wits  together  to  follow  Liszt, 
who  gave  full  rein  to  his  imagination,  and  let^^the 
tempo  fluctuate  as  he  felt  inclined.  As  for  Liszt,  h^ 
scarcely  looked  at  the  keys,  and  it  was  astounding  to 
see  his  hands  go  rushing  up  and  down  the  piano  and 
perform  passages  of  the  utmost  rapidity  and  difficulty, 
while  his  head  was  turned  all  the  while  towards  the 
orchestra,  and  he  kept  up  a  running  fire  of  remarks 
with  them  continually.  "You  violins,  strike  in  sharp 
here."  "  You  trumpets,  not  too  loud  there,"  etc.  He 
did  everything  with  the  most  immense  aplomb,  and 
without  seeming  to  pay  any  attention  to  his  hands, 
which  moved  of  themselves  as  if  they  were  independ- 
ent beings  and  had  their  own  brain  and  everything ! 
He  never  did  the  same  thing  twice  alike.  If  it  were  a 
scale  the  first  time,  he  would  make  it  in  double  or 
broken  thirds  the  second,  and  so  on,  constantly  sur- 
prising you  with  some  new  turn.  While  you  were  ad- 
miring the  long  roll  of  the  wave,  a  sudden  spray 
would  be  dashed  over  you,  and  make  you  catch  your 
breath !  No,  never  was  there  such  a  player !  The 
nervous  intensity  of  his  touch  takes  right  hold  of  you. 
When  he  had  finished  everybody  shouted  and  clapped 
their  hands  like  mad,  and  the  orchestra  kept  up  such  a 
fanfare  of  applause,  that  the  din  was  quite  overpow- 
ering. Liszt  smiled  and  bowed,  and  walked  off  the 
stage  indifferently,  not  giving  himself  the  trouble  to 
come  back,  and  presently  he  quietly  sat  down  in  the 
parquet,  and  the  rehearsal  proceeded.  The  concert  it- 
self took  place  at  the  court,  so  that  I  did  not  hear  it. 
Metzdorf  was  there,  however,  and  he  said  that  Liszt 


ANOTHER  EXCURSION.  253 

played  fabulously,  of  course,  but  that  he  was  not  as 
inspired  as  he  was  in  the  morning,  and  did  not  make 
the  same  effect. 


Weimar,  September  15,  1873. 

The  other  day  an  excursion  was  arranged  to  Son- 
dershausen,  a  town  about  three  hours'  ride  from  Wei- 
mar in  the  cars.  There  was  to  be  a  concert  there  in 
honour  of  Liszt,  and  a  whole  programme  of  his  music 
was  to  be  performed.  About  half  a  dozen  of  the 
"  Lisztianer  " — as  the  Weimarese  dub  Liszt's  pupils — 
agreed  to  go,  I,  of  course,  being  one.  Liszt  himself, 
the  Countess  von  X.  and  Count  S.  were  to  lead  the 
party.  The  morning  we  started  was  one  of  those  per- 
fect autumnal  days  when  it  is  a  delight  simply  to  live. 

After  breakfast  I  hurried  off  to  the  station,  where 
I  met  the  others,  everybody  being  in  the  highest  spirits. 
Liszt  and  his  titled  friends  travelled  in  a  first  class 
carriage  by  themselves.  The  rest  of  us  went  second 
class,  in  the  next  carriage  behind.  We  were  very  gay 
indeed,  and  the  time  did  not  seem  long  till  we  arrived 
at  Sondershausen,  where  we  exchanged  our  seats  in  the 
cars  for  seats  in  an  omnibus,  and  drove  to  the  princi- 
pal hotel.  There  were  not  sufficient  accommodations 
for  us  all,  owing  to  the  number  of  strangers  who  had 
come  to  the  festival,  so  Mrs.  S.  and  I  went  to  a  smaller 
hotel  in  a  more  distant  part  of  the  town  to  engage 
rooms,  intending  to  return  and  dine  with  Liszt  and 
the  rest.  Just  as  our  noisy  vehicle  clattered  up  to  the 
inn  and  some  of  the  gentlemen  jumped  out  to  arrange 
matters,  the  solemn  strains  of  a  chorale  were  heard  from 


254  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

a  church  close  by,  with  its  grand  and  rolling  organ 
accompaniment.    Somehow  it  made  me  feel  sad  to  hex 
it,  and  a  sense  of  the  transitoriness  of  things  came 
over  me.    It  seemed  like  one  of  those  voices  from  the 
other  world  that  call  to  us  now  and  then. 

After  we  had  engaged  our  rooms,  we  drove  back  to 
the  hotel  where  Liszt  was  staying,  and  where  we  were 
to  dine  immediately.  It  was  in  the  centre  of  the  town, 
and  directly  opposite  the  palace,  which  rose  boldly  on 
a  sort  of  eminence  with  great  flights  of  stone  steps 
sweeping  down  to  the  road  on  each  side.  It  looked 
quite  imposing.  An  avenue  wound  up  the  hill  to  the 
right  of  it.  In  the  dining-room  of  the  hotel  a  long 
table  was  spread  and  all  the  places  were  carefully  set. 
My  place  was  next  Count  S.  and  not  far  from  Liszt. 
So  I  was  very  well  seated.  Everybody  began  talking 
at  once  the  minute  dinner  was  served,  as  they  always 
do  at  table  in  Germany.  Toward  the  close  of  it  were 
the  usual  number  of  toasts  in  honour  of  Liszt,  to  which 
he  responded  in  rather  a  bored  sort  of  way.  I  don't 
wonder  he  gets  tired  of  them,  for  it  is  always  the  same 
thing.  He  did  not  seem  to  be  in  his  usual  spirits,  and 
had  a  fatigued  air. 

After  dinner  he  said,  "  Now  let  us  go  and  see  Frau- 
lein  Fichtner."  FrSulein  Fichtner  was  the  young  lady 
who  was  going  to  play  his  concerto  in  A  major  at  the 
concert  that  evening.  She  is  a  well-known  pianist  in 
Germany,  and  is  both  pretty  and  brilliant.  We  started 
in  a  procession,  which  is  the  way  one  always  walks  with 
Liszt.  It  reminds  me  of  those  snow-balls  the  boys  roll 
up  at  home — the  crowd  gathers  as  it  proceeds !   When 


LISZT'S  CONCERTO  IN  A.  255 

we  got  to  the  house  we  entered  an  obscure  corridor 
and  began  to  find  our  way  up  a  dark  and  narrow  stair- 
case. Some  one  struck  a  wax  match.  "  Good  !"  called 
out  Liszt,  in  his  sonorous  voice.  "Leuchten  Sie  voraics 
(Light  us  up)."  When  we  got  to  the  top  we  pulled 
the  bell  and  were  let  in  by  FrSulein  Fichtner's  mother. 
FrSulein  Fichtner  herself  looked  no  ways  dismayed  at 
the  number  of  her  guests,  though  we  had  the  air  of 
coming  to  storm  the  house.  She  gaily  produced  all 
the  chairs  there  were,  and  those  who  could  not  find  a 
seat  had  to  stand !  She  was  in  Weimar  for  a  few  days 
this  summer.  So  we  had  all  met  her  before,  and  I 
had  once  heard  her  play  some  duets  by  Schumann  with 
Liszt,  who  enjoyed  reading  with  "  Pauline,"  as  he  calls 
her.  It  is  to  her  that  Kaff  has  dedicated  his  exquisite 
"Maerchen  (Fairy  story)."  She  is  a  sparkling  bru- 
nette, with  a  face  full  of  intelligence.  They  say  she 
writes  charming  little  poems  and  is  gifted  in  various 
ways.  Not  to  tire  her  for  the  concert  we  only  stayed 
about  twenty  minutes. 

Going  back,  Liszt  indulged  in  a  little  graceful  badi- 
nage apropos  of  the  concerto.  You  know  he  has 
written  two  concertos.  The  one  in  E  flat  is  much 
played,  but  this  one  in  A  very  rarely.  It  is  exceedingly 
difficult  and  is  one  of  the  few  of  his  compositions  that 
it  interests  Liszt  to  know  that  people  play.  "  I  should 
write  it  otherwise  if  I  wrote  it  now,"  he  explained  to 
me  as  we  were  walking  along.  "  Some  passages  are 
very  troublesome  (haecklig)  to  execute.  I  was  younger 
and  less  experienced  when  I  composed  it,"  he  added, 
with  one  of  those  illuminating  smiles  "  like  the  flash 
of  a  dagger  in  the  sun,"  as  Lenz  says. 


256  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

"When  we  reached  the  hotel  everybody  went  in  tc 
fake  a  siesta — that  "  Mittags-Schlaf  "  which  is  law  in 
G-ermany.  I  did  not  wish  to  sleep  and  felt  like  ex- 
ploring the  old  town.  So  Count  S.  and  I  started  on 
a  walk.  Sondershausen  is  a  dreamy,  sleepy  place,  with 
so  little  life  about  it  that  you  hardly  realize  there  are 
any  people  there  at  all.  It  is  pleasantly  situated,  and 
gentle  hills  and  undulations  of  land  are  all  about  it, 
but  it  seems  as  if  the  town  had  been  dead  for  a  long 
time  and  this  were  its  grave  over  which  one  was  quietly 
walking.  We  took  the  road  that  wound  past  the 
castle.  It  was  embowered  in  trees,  and  behind  the 
castle  were  gardens  and  conservatories.  The  road 
descended  on  the  other  side,  and  we  followed  it  till 
we  came  unexpectedly  upon  a  little  circular  park. 
Such  a  deserted,  widowed  little  park  it  seemed  !  Not  a 
soul  did  we  encounter  as  we  wandered  through  its  paths. 
Bordering  them  were  great  quantities  of  berry-laden 
snow-berry  bushes,  of  which  I  am  very  fond.  The 
park  had  a  sort  of  rank  and  unkempt  aspect,  as  if  it 
were  abandoned  to  itself.  The  very  stream  that  went 
through  it  flowed  sluggishly  along,  and  as  if  it  hadn't 
any  particular  object  in  life. — I  enjoyed  it  very  much, 
and  it  was  very  restful  to  walk  about  it.  One  felt 
there  the  truth  of  K.'s  favourite  saying,  "  It  doesn't 
make  any  diiference.   Nothing  makes  any  difference." 

Count  S.  rattled  on,  but  I  didn't  hear  more  than 
half  of  what  he  said.  He  is  a  pleasure-loving  man  of 
the  world,  fond  of  music,  but  a  perfect  materialist, 
and  untroubled  by  the  "souffle  vers  le  heav!^  which  tor- 
ments so  many  people.     At  the  same  time  he  is  ap- 


THE  SONDERSHAUSEN  ORCHESTRA.        257 

preciative  and  very  amusing,  and  one  has  no  chance 
to  indulge  in  melancholy  with  him.  We  saun- 
tered about  till  late  in  the  af  ernoon,  and  then  returned 
to  the  hotel  for  coffee  before  going  to  the  concert, 
which  began  at  seven.  The  concert  hall  was  behind 
the  palace  and  seemed  to  form  a  part  of  it.  Liszt, 
the  Countess  von  X.,  and  Count  S.  sat  in  a  box,  aris- 
tocratic-fashion. The  rest  of  us  were  in  the  parquet. 
I  was  amazed  at  the  orchestra,  which  was  very  large 
and  played  gloriously.  It  seemed  to  me  as  fine  as  that 
of  the  Gewandhaus  in  Leipsic,  though  I  suppose  it 
cannot  be. — "Why  has  no  one  ever  mentioned  this 
orchestra  to  me?"  I  asked  of  Kellermann,  who  sat 
next,  "  and  how  is  it  one  finds  such  an  orchestra  in 
such  a  place?"  "Oh,"  said  he,  "  this  orchestra  is  very 
celebrated,  and  the  Prince  of  Sondershausen  is  a  great 
patron  of  music."  This  is  the  way  it  is  in  Germany. 
Every  now  and  then  one  has  these  surprises.  You 
never  know  when  you  are  going  to  stumble  upon  a 
jewel  in  the  most  out-of-the-way  corner. 

We  were  all  greatly  excited  over  FrSulein  Fichtner's 
playing,  and  it  seemed  very  jolly  to  be  behind  the 
scenes,  as  it  were,  and  to  have  one  of  our  own  num- 
ber performing.  We  applauded  tremendously  when 
she  came  out.  She  was  not  nervous  in  the  least,  but 
began  with  great  aplomb,  and  played  most  beautifully. 
The  concerto  made  a  generally  dazzling  and  difficult 
impression  upon  me,  but  did  not  "take  hold"  of  me 
particularly.  I  do  not  know  how  Liszt  was  pleased 
with  her  rendering  of  it,  for  I  had  no  opportunity  bf 
asking  him.     She  also  played  his  Fourteenth  Rhapsody 


358  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

with  orchestral  accompaniment  in  most  bold  and 
dashing  style.  Fraulein  Fichtner  is  more  in  the  bra- 
vura than  in  the  sentimental  line,  and  she  has  a  cer- 
tain breadth,  grasp,  and  freshness.  The  last  piece  on 
the  programme  was  Liszt's  Choral  Symphony,  which 
was  magnificent.  The  chorus  came  at  the  end  of  it, 
as  in  the  Ninth  Symphony.  Mrs.  S.  said  she  was 
familiar  with  it  from  having  heard  Thomas's  orches- 
tra play  it  in  New^York. — That  orchestra,  byi^the  way, 
from  what  I  hear,  seems  to  have  developed  into  some- 
thing remarkable.  It  is  a  great  thing  for  the  musical 
education  of  the  country  to  have  such  an  organiza- 
tion travelling  every  winter.  And  what  a  revelation 
is  an  orchestra  the  first  time  one  hears  it,  even  if  it 
be  but  a  poor  one ! — Music  come  bodily  down  from 
Heaven !  And  here  in  their  musical  darkness,  the 
Americans  in  the  provinces  are  having  an  orchestra  of 
the  very  highest  excellence  burst  upon  them  in  full 
splendour.  What  could  be  more  American?  They 
always  have  the  best  or  none ! 

At  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  the  concert  was 
over,  and  we  all  returned  to  the  hotel  for  supper.  We 
were  all  desperately  hungry  after  so  much  music  and 
enthusiasm.  Everybody  wanted  to  be  helped  at 
once,  and  the  waiters  were  nearly  distracted.  Count 
S.  sat  next  me  and  was  very  funny.  He  kept 
rapping  the  table  like  mad,  but  without  any  success. 
Finally  he  exclaimed,  "  Jetzt  gelC  ich  auf  Jagd 
(Now  Tm  going  hunting) !"  and  sprang  up  from 
his  chair,  rushed  to  the  other  end  of  the  dining- 
room,  possessed  himself  of  some  dishes  the  waiters 


AN  UNHAPPY  COUNTESS.  259 

were  helping,  and  returned  in  triumph.  I  couldn't 
help  laughing,  and  he  made  a  great  many  jokes  at  the 
expense  of  the  waiters  and  everybody  else.  I  could 
not  hear  any  of  Liszt's  conversation,  which  I  regret- 
ted, but  he  seemed  in  a  quiet  mood.  I  do  not  think 
he  is  the  same  when  he  is  with  aristocrats.  He  must 
be  among  artists  to  unsheathe  his  sword.  When  he  is 
with  "swells,"  he  is  all  grace  and  polish.  He  seems  only 
to  toy  with  his  genius  for  their  amusement,  and  he  is 
never  serious.  At  least  this  is  as  far  as  my  observation 
of  him  goes  on  the  few  occasions  I  have  seen  him  in 
the  beau  monde.  The  presence  of  the  proud  Countess 
von  X.  at  Sondershausen  kept  him,  as  it  were,  at  a  dis- 
tance from  everybody  else,  and  he  was  not  overflowing 
with  fun  and  gayety  as  he  was  at  Jena.  She,  of  course, 
did  not  go  with  us  to  see  FrSulein  Fichtner,  which 
was  fortunate.  After  supper  one  and  all  went  to 
bed  early,  quite  tired  out  with  the  day's  excitement. 

This  haughty  Countess,  by  the  way,  has  always  had 
a  great  fascination  for  me,  because  she  looks  like  a 
woman  who  "  has  a  history."  I  have  often  seen  her  at 
Liszt's  matinees,  and  from  what  I  hear  of  her,  she  is 
such  a  type  of  woman  as  I  suppose  only  exists  in 
Europe,  and  such  as  the  heroines  of  foreign  novels 
are  modelled  upon.  She  is  a  widow,  and  in  appearance 
is  about  thirty-six  or  eight  years  old,  of  medium 
height,  slight  to  thinness,  but  exceedingly  graceful. 
She  is  always  attired  in  black,  and  is  utterly  careless  in 
dress,  yet  nothing  can  conceal  her  innate  elegance  of 
figure.  Her  face  is  pallid  and  her  hair  dark.  She 
makes  an  impression  of  icy  coldness  and  at  the  same 


260  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

time  of  tropical  heat.  The  pride  of  Lucifer  to  the 
world  in  general — entire  abandonment  to  the  individ- 
ual. I  meet  her  often  in  the  park,  as  she  walks  along 
trailing  her  "  sable  garments  like  the  night,"  and  sur- 
rounded by  her  four  beautiful  boys — as  Count  S. 
says,  "  each  handsomer  than  the  other."  They  have 
such  romantic  faces  !  Dark  eyes  and  dark  curling  hair. 
The  eldest  is  about  fourteen  and  the  youngest  five. 

The  little  one  is  too  lovely,  with  his  brown  curls 
hanging  on  his  shoulders !  I  never  shall  forget  the 
supercilious  manner  in  which  the  Countess  took  out 
her  eye-glass  and  looked  me  over  as  I  passed  her  one 
day  in  the  park.  Weimar  being  such  a  "  hleines  N'est 
(little  nest),"  as  Liszt  calls  it,  every  stranger  is  immedi- 
ately remarked.  She  waited  till  I  got  close  up,  then 
deliberately  put  up  this  glass  and  scrutinized  me 
from  head  to  foot,  then  let  it  fall  with  a  half -dis- 
dainful, half-indiiferent  air,  as  if  the  scrutiny  did  not 
reward  the  trouble. — I  was  so  amused.  Her  arrogance 
piques  all  Weimar,  and  they  never  cease  talking 
about  her.  I  can  never  help  wishing  to  see  her  in  a 
fashionable  toilet.  If  she  is  so  distinguee  in  rather  less 
than  ordinary  dress,  what  would  she  be  in  a  Parisian 
costume  ?  I  mean  as  to  grace,  for  she  is  not  pretty. — 
But  as  a  psychological  study,  she  is  more  interesting, 
perhaps,  as  she  is.  She  always  seems  to  me  to  be  grad- 
ually going  to  wreck — a  burnt-out  volcano,  with  her 
own  ashes  settling  down  upon  her  and  covering  her 
up.  She  is  very  highly  educated,  and  is  preparing  her 
eldest  son  for  the  university  herself.  What  a  subject 
she  would  have  been  for  a  Balzac ! 


WRITING  CANONS.  ^61 

We  stayed  over  the  next  day  in  Sondershausen,  as 
there  was  to  be  another  orchestral  concert — this  time 
with  a  miscellaneous  programme.  Fraulein  Ficht- 
ner  had  already  departed,  but  the  first  violinist  played 
Mendelssohn's  famous  concerto  for  violin. — Not  in 
WilhelmJ's  masterly  style,  but  extremely  well.  We 
took  the  train  for  Weimar  about  five  P.  M.  Going 
back  I  was  in  the  carriage  with  Liszt.  He  sat  opposite 
me,  and  gradually  began  to  talk.  The  conversation 
turned  upon  Weitzmann,  my  former  harmony  teacher, 
who,  you  remember,  was  so  determined  to  make  me 
learn.  Liszt  remarked  upon  the  extent  of  his  knowl- 
edge and  said,  "  If  I  were  not  so  old  I  should  like  to 
go  to  school  again  to  Weitzmann."  He  was  talking 
to  Weitzmann  one  day,  he  said,  and  Weitzmann  pro- 
posed to  him  that  he  should  write  a  canon.  "  I  sat 
down  and  worked  over  it  a  good  while,  but  finally  gave 
it  up. — I  know  not  why,  but  I  never  had  any  success  in 
writing  canons.  Weitzmann  then  sat  down,  and  in 
half  an  hour  had  produced  two  excellent  ones."  He 
gave  this  as  an  instance  of  Weitzmann's  readiness. — A 
canon,  you  know,  is  a  sort  of  musical  puzzle.  The 
right  baud  plays  the  theme.  The  left  hand  takes  it 
up  a  little  later  and  imitates  the  right.  The  two 
interweave,  and  the  theme  forms  the  melody  and  the 
accompaniment  at  the  same  time,  according  as  it  is 
played  by  the  right  or  left  hand — something  on  the 
principle  of  singing  rounds.  The  difficulty  consists 
in  avoiding  monotony  with  this  continual  itera- 
tion of  the  theme,  which  can  be  brought  on  at  dif- 
ferent intervals,  inverted,  etc.,  at  will.    It  seems  to  be 


262  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

more  a  mathematical  than  a  musical  style  of  compo- 
sition. I  should  suppose  that  Bach  could  fire  off  can- 
ons without  end !  He  developed  it  in  every  imagin- 
able form. — Liszt,  however,  is  of  rather  a  different 
school ! 

We  got  back  to  Weimar  about  eight  in  the  evening, 
and  this  delicious  excursion,  like  all  others,  had  to  end. 
But  the  quiet  old  town,  with  its  musical  name  and  its 
great  orchestra,  will  long  remain  in  my  memory. 

Adieu,  Sondershausen  I 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

Farewell  to  Liszt  f    German  Conservatories  and  their  Methods, 
Berlin  Again.     Liszt  and  Joachim. 

Weimar,  September  24, 1873. 
We  had  our  last  lesson  from  Liszt  a  few  days 
ago,  and  he  leaves  Weimar  next  week.  He  was  so  hur- 
ried with  engagements  the  last  two  times  that  he  was 
not  able  to  give  us  much  attention.  I  played  my  Rubin- 
stein concerto.  He  accompanied  me  himself  on  a 
second  piano.  We  were  there  about  six  o'clock  P.  M. 
Liszt  was  out,  but  he  had  left  word  that  if  we  came  we 
were  to  wait.  About  seven  he  came  in,  and  the  lamps 
were  lit.  He  was  in  an  awful  humour,  and  I  never  saw 
him  so  out  of  spirits.  "  How  is  it  with  our  concerto  ?" 
said  he  to  me,  for  he  had  told  me  the  time  before 
to  send  for  the  second  piano  accompaniment,  and  he 
would  play  it  with  me.  I  told  him  that  unfortunately 
there  existed  no  second  piano  part.  "Then,  child, 
youVe  fallen  on  your  head,  if  you  don't  know  that  at 
least  you  must  have  a  second  copy  of  the  concerto  !" 
I  told  him  I  knew  it  by  heart.  "Oh !"  said  he,  in  a 
mollified  tone.  So  he  took  my  copy  and  played  the 
orchestra  part  which  is  indicated  above  the  piano  part, 
and  I  played  without  notes.  I  felt  inspired,  for  the 
piano  I  was  at  was  a  magnificent  grand  that  Steinway 
presented  to  Liszt  only  the  other  day.  Liszt  was 
seated  at  another  grand  facing  me,  and  the  room  was 


264  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

dimly  illuminated  by  one  or  two  lamps.  A  few  artists 
were  sitting  about  in  the  shadow.  It  was  at  the  twi- 
light hour, "  Vheure  du  mysUre^^  as  the  poetic  Gurickx 
used  to  say,  and  in  short,  the  occasion  was  perfect, 
and  couldn't  happen  so  again.  You  see  we  always 
have  our  lessons  in  the  afternoon,  and  it  was  a  mere 
chance  that  it  was  so  late  this  time.  So  I  felt  as  if  I 
were  in  an  electric  state.  I  had  studied  the  piece  sor 
much  that  I  felt  perfectly  sure  of  it,  and  then  with 
Liszt's  splendid  accompaniment  and  his  beautiful  face 
to  look  over  to — it  was  enough  to  bring  out  every- 
thing there  was  in  one.  If  he  had  only  been  himself 
I  should  have  had  nothing  more  to  desire,  but  he  was 
in  one  of  his  bitter,  sarcastic  moods.  However,  I  went 
rushing  on  to  the  end — like  a  torrent  plunging 
down  into  darkness,  I  might  say — for  it  was  the  end, 
too,  of  my  lessons  with  Liszt ! 

In  answer  to  your  musical  questions,  I  don't  know 
that  there  is  much  to  be  told  about  conservatories  of 
which  you  are  not  aware.  The  one  in  Stuttgardt  is 
considered  the  best;  and  there  the  pupils  are  put 
through  a  regular  graded  method,  beginning  with 
learning  to  hold  the  hand,  and  with  the  simplest  five 
finger  exercises.  There  are  certain  things,  studies,  etc., 
which  all  the  scholars  have  to  learn.  That  was  also 
the  case  in  Tausig's  conservatory.  First  we  had  to 
go  through  Cramer,  then  through  the  Gradus  ad  Par- 
nassum,  then  through  Moscheles,then  Chopin,  Henselt, 
Liszt  and  Eubinstein.  I  haven't  got  farther  than 
Chopin,  myself,  but  when  I  went  to  Kullak  I  studied 
Czern/s  School  for  Virtuosen  a  whole  year,  which  is 


SCHOOLING  THE  FINGERS.  365 

the  book  he  "  swears  by."  I'm  going  on  with  them  this 
winter.  It  takes  years  to  pass  through  them  all,  but 
when  you  have  finished  them,  you  are  an  artist. 

I  think  myself  the  "  Schule  des  Virtuosen"  is  indis- 
pensable, much  as  I  loathe  it.  First,  there  is  nothing 
like  it  for  giving  you  a  technique.  It  consists  of  pas- 
sages, generally  about  two  lines  in  length,  which 
Czerny  has  the  face  to  request  you  to  play  from  twenty 
to  thirty  times  successively.  You  can  imagine  at  that 
rate  how  long  it  takes  you  to  play  through  one  page ! 
Tedious  to  the  last  degree  !  But  it  greatly  equalizes 
and  strengthens  the  fingers,  and  makes  your  exe- 
cution smooth  and  elegant.  It  teaches  you  to  take 
your  time,  or  as  the  Germans  call  it,  it  gives  you 
"  Buhe  (repose),"  the  grand  sine  qua  non  !  You  learn 
to  "play  out"  your  passages  (" ausspielen"  as  KuUak 
is  always  saying) ;  that  is,  you  don't  hurry  or  blur  over 
the  last  notes,  but  play  clearly  and  in  strict  time  to 
the  end  of  the  passage.  I  saw  Lebert,  the  head  of 
the  Stuttgardt  conservatory,  here  this  summer,  and 
had  several  long  conversations  with  him,  and  he  told 
me  he  considered  Bach  the  best  study,  and  put  the 
Well-Tempered  Clavichord  at  the  foundation  of 
everything.  The  Stuttgardters  study  Bach  every  day, 
and  I  think  it  a  capital  plan  myself.  I  have  begun  do- 
ing it,  too.  It  was  a  great  thing  for  me,  that  quarter 
of  Bach  that  I  took  with  Mr.  Paine  in  Cambridge, 
and  was  one  of  your  inspirations,  when  you  'Hauilded 
better  than  you  knew." — I  never  saw  a  person  with 
such  an  instinct  to  find  out  the  right  thing  as  you 
have !     If  it  hadn't  been  for  that,  I  should  never  have 


266  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

got  so  familiarized  with  Bach,  or  got  into  the  way 
of  studying  him  for  myself,  as  I  have  done  a  great 
deal.  It  is  as  great  for  the  fingers  as  it  is  "  good  for 
the  soul."  Lenz,  in  his  sketch  of  Chopin,  says  that 
Chopin  told  him  when  he  prepared  for  a  concert  he 
never  studied  his  own  compositions  at  all,  but  shut 
himself  up  and  practiced  Bach  ! 

However,  I  suppose  it  comes  to  the  same  thing  in 
the  end  if  one  studies  Bach,  Czerny,  or  Gradus,  only 
you  must  keep  at  one  of  them  all  the  while.  The 
grand  thing  is  to  have  each  of  your  five  fingers  go 
"  dum,  dum,"  an  equal  number  of  times,  which  is  the 
principle  of  all  three !  Tausig  was  for  Gradus,  you 
know,  and  practiced  it  himself  every  day.  He  used  to 
transpose  the  studies  in  different  keys,  and  play  just 
the  same  in  the  left  hand  as  in  the  right,  and  enhance 
their  difficulties  in  every  way,  but  I  always  found 
them  hard  enough  as  they  were  written!  Bach 
strengthens  the  fingers  and  makes  them  independent. 
Czerny  equalizes  them  and  gives  an  easy  and  ele- 
gant execution,  and  Gradus  is  not  only  good  for  fin- 
ger technique — it  trains  the  arm  and  wrist  also,  and 
gives  a  much  more  powerful  execution. 

I  think  that  in  all  conservatories  they  have  at  least 
six  lessons  a  week,  two  solo,  two  in  reading  at  sight, 
and  two  in  composition.  Then  there  are  often  lec- 
tures held  on  musical  subjects  by  some  of  the  Profes- 
sors, or  by  some  one  who  is  engaged  for  that  purpose. 
All  large  conservatories  have  an  orchestra,  composed 
generally  out  of  the  scholars  themselves,  with  a  few 
professionals  hired  to  eke  out  deficiencies.    With  this 


THE  STUTTGARDT  CONSERVATORY.    267 

the  best  piano  scholars  play  their  concertos  once  a 
month,  or  once  in  six  weeks.  The  number  of  public 
representations  varies  in  every  conservatory.  In  the 
Hoch  Schule  in  Berlin  they  have  two  yearly  in  the 
Sing-Akademie.  KuUak  professes  to  have  one,  but  he 
has  so  little  interest  in  his  scholars  that  he  omits  it 
when  it  suits  his  convenience.  In  Stuttgardt  I  be- 
lieve they  have  four.  I  don't  know  much  about  the  in- 
terior arrangements  of  KuUak's  conservatory,  because 
I  only  went  to  his  own  class.  I  lived  too  far  away  to 
attempt  the  theory  and  composition  class.  Liszt  says 
that  Kullak's  [pupils  are  always  the  best  schooled  of 
any,  which  rather  surprised  me,  because  there  is  a  cer- 
tain intimacy  between  him  and  Stuttgardt,  and  he 
always  recommends  scholars  to  the  Stuttgardt  con- 
servatory. 

The  Stuttgardters  do  have  immense  technique, 
and  I  think  they  are  better  taught  how  to  study.  It 
strikes  me  as  if  Stuttgardt  were  the  place  to  get  the 
machine  in  working  order,  but  I  rather  think  that 
KuUak  trains  the  head  more.  There  is  a  young 
American  here  named  Orth,  who  studied  two  years 
with  KuUak,  then  he  spent  a  year  in  Stuttgardt,  and 
now  he  is  going  to  return  to  KuUak.  He  says  he 
thinks  that  not  Lebert,  but  Pruckner,  is  the  real  back- 
bone of  the  Stuttgardt  conservatory,  but  that  even 
with  him  one  year  is  sufficient.  FrMulein  Gaul,  on  the 
contrary,  with  whom  Lebert  has  taken  the  greatest  pos- 
sible pains,  thinks  him  a  magnificent  master,  and  cer- 
tainly he  has  developed  her  admirably.  It  is  probably 
with  him  as  with  them  all.    If  they  take  a  fancy  to 


268  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

you,  they  will  do  a  great  deal  for  you ;  if  not,  noth- 
ing!  Liszt  is  no  exception  to  this  rule.  I've  seen 
him  snub  and  entirely  neglect  young  artists  of  the 
most  remarkable  talent  and  virtuosity,  merely  because 
they  did  not  please  him  personally. 


Berlin,  October  8, 1873. 
Voil^!  as  Liszt  always  says.  Here  I  am  back  again 
in  old  Berlin,  and  if  I  ever  felt  "  like  a  cat  in  a  strange 
garret,"  I  do  now.  I  left  dear  little  Weimar  two  days 
ago,  and  parted  from  our  adored  Liszt  a  week  ago  to- 
day. He  has  gone  to  Rome.  Never  did  I  feel  leaving 
anybody  or  any  place  so  much,  and  Berlin  seems  to 
me  like  a  great  roaring  wilderness.  The  distances  are 
so  endless  here.  You  either  have  to  kill  yourself  walk- 
ing, or  else  spend  a  fortune  in  droschkies.  The 
houses  all  seem  to  me  as  if  they  had  grown.  There  is 
an  immense  number  of  new  ones^oing  up  on  all  sides, 
and  the  noise,  and  the  crowd,  and  the  confusion  are 
enough  to  set  one  distracted,  after  the  idyllic  life  I've 
been  lead.ing.  Ah,  well !  Es  war  eben  zu  schonl  (It 
was  too  beautiful !) 

Yesterday  and  to-day  I've  been  looking  about  for  a 
new  boarding-place.  I've  had  two  invitations  to  din- 
ner since  my  return,  but  everybody  and  everjrthing 
seems  so  dull  and  stupid,  prosaic  and  tedious  to  me, 
that  I  declined  them  both,  and  haven't  given  any  of 
my  friends  my  address  until  I  have  had  a  little  time 
to  let  myself  down  gradually  from  the  delights  of 
Weimar. 


LISZT  AND  JOACHIM.  269 

Liszt  was  kindness  itself  when  the  time  came  to  say 
good-bye,  but  I  could  scarcely  get  out  a  word,  nor 
could  I  even  thank  him  for  all  he  had  done  for  me. 
I  did  not  wish  to  break  down  and  make  a  scene,  as  I 
felt  I  should  if  I  tried  to  say  anything.  So  I  fear  he 
thought  me  rather  ungrateful  and  matter-of-course,  for 
he  couldn't  know  that  I  was  feeling  an  excess  of  emo- 
tion which  kept  me  silent.  I  miss  going  to  him  inex- 
pressibly, and  although  I  heard  my  favourite  Joachim 
last  night,  even  he  paled  before  Liszt.  He  is  on  the 
violin  what  Liszt  is  on  the  piano,  and  is  the  only  artist 
worthy  to  be  mentioned  in  the  same  breath  with  him. 

Like  Liszt,  he  so  vitalizes  everything  that  I  have  to 
take  him  in  all  over  again  every  time  I  hear  him.  I 
am  always  astonished,  amazed  and  delighted  afresh, 
and  even  as  I  listen  I  can  hardly  believe  that  the  man 
can  play  so  !  But  Liszt,  in  addition  to  his  marvellous 
playing,  has  this  unique  and  imposing  personality, 
whereas  at  first  Joachim  is  not  specially  striking. 
Liszt's  face  is  all  a  play  of  feature,  a  glow  of  fancy,  a 
blaze  of  imagination,  whereas  Joachim  is  absorbed  in 
his  violin,  and  his  face  has  only  an  expression  of  fine 
discrimination  and  of  intense  solicitude  to  produce  his 
artistic  effects.  Liszt  never  looks  at  his  instrument ; 
Joachim  never  looks  at  anything  else.  Liszt  is  a  com- 
plete actor  who  intends' to  carry  away  the  public,  who 
never  forgets  that  he  is  before  it,  and  who  behaves  ac- 
cordingly. Joachim  is  totally  oblivious  of  it.  Liszt 
subdues  the  people  to  him  by  the  very  way  he  walks 
on  to  the  stage.  He  gives  his  proud  head  a  toss, 
throws  an  electric  look  out  of  his  eagle  eye,  and  seats 


270  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

himself  with  an  air  as  much  as  to  say,  "  Now  I  am 
going  to  do  just  what  I  please  with  you,  and  you  are 
nothing  but  puppets  subject  to  my  will."  He  said  to 
us  in  the  class  one  day,  "When  you  come  out  on  the 
stage,  look  as  if  you  didn't  care  a  rap  for  the  audience, 
and  as  if  you  knew  more  than  any  of  them.  That's 
the  way  I  used  to  do. — Didn't  that  provoke  the  critics 
though !"  he  added,  with  an  ineffable  look  of  ma- 
licious mischief.  So  you  see  his  principle,  and  that 
was  precisely  the  way  he  did  at  the  rehearsal  in  the 
theatre  at  Weimar  that  I  wrote  to  you  about.  Joachim, 
on  the  contrary,  is  the  quiet  gentleman-artist.  He 
advances  in  the  most  unpretentious  way,  but  as  he  ad- 
justs his  violin  he  looks  his  audience  over  with  the 
calm  air  of  a  musical  monarch,  as  much  as  to  say,  "  I 
repose  wholly  on  my  art,  and  I've  no  need  of  any 
'  ways  or  manners.' "  In  reality  I  admire  Joachim's 
principle  the  most,  but  there  is  something  indescrib- 
ably fascinating  and  subduing  about  Liszt's  willful- 
ness. You  feel  at  once  that  he  is  a  great  genius,  and 
that  you  are  nothing  but  his  puppet,  and  somehow  you 
take  a  base  delight  in  the  humiliation !  The  two 
men  are  intensely  interesting,  each  in  his  own  way, 
but  they  are  extremes. 

[Beside  his  playing  and  his  compositions,  what  Liszt 
has  done  for  music  and  for  musicians,  and  why,  there- 
fore, he  stands  so  pre-eminently  the  greatest  and  the  best 
beloved  master  in  the  musical  world,  may  appear  to  the 
general  reader  in  the  following  extract  taken  from  a 
translation  in  DwigMs  Journal^  Oct.  23, 1880,  of  "Franz 
Liszt,  a  Musical  Character  Portrait "  by  La  Mara,  in  the 


LISZT'S  NOBLENESS.  271 

Gartenlauhe :  "  We  must  count  it  among  the  excep- 
tional merits  of  Liszt,  that  he  has  paved  the  way  to 
recognition  for  innumerable  aspirants,  as  he  always 
shows  an  open  heart  and  open  hands  to  all  artistic 
strivings.  He  was  the  first  and  most  active  f  urtherer  of 
the  immense  Bayreuth  enterprise,  and  the  chief  founder 
of  the  Musical  Societies  or  Unions  that  flourish  through- 
out Germany.  And  for  how  many  noble  and  philan- 
thropic objects  has  he  not  exerted  his  artistic  resources ! 
If,  during  his  earlier  virtuoso  career,  he  made  his  genius 
serve  the  advantage  of  others  far  more  than  his  own — 
saving  out  of  the  millions  that  he  earned  only  a  modest 
sum  for  himself,  while  he  alone  contributed  many  thou- 
sands for  the  completion  of  Cologne  Cathederal,  for  the 
Beethoven  monument  at  Bonn,  and  for  the  victims  of 
the  Hamburg  conflagration — so  smce  the  close  of  his 
career  as  a  pianist  his  pubhc  artistic  activity  has  been 
exclusively  consecrated  to  the  benefit  of  others,  to  artistic 
undertakings,  or  to  charitable  objects.  Since  the  end  of 
1847,  not  a  penny  has  come  into  his  own  pocket  either 
through  piano-playing  and  conducting,  or  through  teach- 
ing. All  this,  which  has  yielded  such  rich  capital  and 
interest  to  others,  has  cost  only  sacrifice  of  time  and 
money  to  himself."] — Ed. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

KuUak  as  a  Teacher.     The  Four  Great  Virtuosi,  Clara  Schtt 
mann,  Rubinstein,  Von  Billow,  and  Tausig. 

Berlin,  November  7, 1873. 

I've  been  in  a  sort  of  mental  apathy  since  I  got 
back — the  result,  I  suppose,  of  so  much  artistic  excite- 
ment all  summer.  Of  course  I  am  practicing  very- 
hard,  and  I  am  taking  private  lessons  of  Kullak  again. 
I  played  him  my  Rubinstein  concerto  two  weeks  ago 
and  told  him  I  wanted  to  play  it  in  a  concert.  He 
says  I  need  more  power  in  it  in  many  places,  and  by 
practicing  it  every  day  I  hope  I  shall  at  last  work  up 
to  it,  as  I've  conquered  the  technical  difficulties  in  it. 
There  were  two  pages  in  it  I  thought  I  never  could 
master.  It  is  the  same  with  all  concertos.  They  are 
fearfully  difficult  things  to  play,  and  far  more  difficult, 
/  think,  than  solos  are,  because  the  effort  is  so  sus- 
tained. They  are  to  me  the  most  interesting  things 
to  listen  to  of  all,  and  I  can't  imagine  how  you  can 
think  that  piano  and  orchestra  are  "  not  made  to  go 
together."  However,  I  never  myself  appreciated  con- 
certos until  I  came  to  Germany. 

Kullak  is  the  most  awfully  discouraging  teacher 
that  can  be  imagined.  When  you  play  to  him,  it  is 
like  looking  at  your  skin  through  a  magnifying  glass. 
All  your  faults  seem  to  start  out  and  glare  at  you.  I 
don't  think,  though,  that  I  ever  fairly  do  myself  justice 

(273) 


LISZT  AND  KULLAK.  27B 

whei^  I  play  to  him,  because  he  has  a  sort  of  benumb- 
ing effect  on  me,  and  I  feel  to  him  something  the  way 
that  Owen  did  to  old  Peter  in  Hawthorne's  story  of 
XThe  Artist  of  the  Beautiful."  I  can't  help  acknowl- 
edging the  truth  of  his  observations  even  when  I  am 
wincing  under  them,  and  I  yet  feel  at  the  same  time 
that  he  does  not  wholly  get  at  the  soul  of  the  thing. 
Kullak  is  so  pedantic !  He  never  overlooks  a  tech- 
nical imperfection,  and  he  ties  you  down  to  the  tech- 
nique so  that  you  never  can  give  rein  to  your  imagina- 
tion. He  sits  at  the  other  piano,  and  just  as  you  are 
rushing  off  he  will  strike  in  himself  and  say,  "  Don't 
hurry,  Fraulein,"  or  something  Jike  that,  and  then 
you  begin  to  think  about  holding  back  your  fingers  and 
playing  every  note  even,  etc.  Now  I  never  expect  to  get 
that  perfection  of  technique  that  all  these  artists  have 
who  have  been  training  throughout  their  childhood 
while  their  hand  was  forming.  Kullak's  own  technique 
is  magnificent,  but  now  that  I've  graduated,  as  it  were, 
he  ought  to  let  me  play  my  own  way,  and  not  expect  me 
to  play  as  he  does,  and  then  I  could  produce  my  own 
effects.  That  is  just  the  difference  between  him  and 
Liszt.  Liszt's  grand  principle  is,  to  leave  you  your 
freedom,  and  when  you  play  to  him,  you  feel  like  a 
Pegasus  caracoling  about  in  the  air.  When  you  play 
to  Kullak,  you  feel  as  if  your  wings  were  suddenly 
clipped,  and  as  if  you  were  put  into  harness  to  draw 
an  express  wagon  !  However,  I  don't  think  it  would 
be  well  to  go  to  Liszt  without  having  been  through 
such  a  training  first,  for  you  want  to  know  what  you 
are  about  when  you  study  with  him.  You  must  have 
18 


274  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

a  good  solid  basis  upon  which  to  raise  his  airy  super- 
structures.  KuUak  I  regard  as  the  basis. 
y  You  ask  me  in  your  letter  to  write  you  a  comparison — 
a  summing  up — between  Clara  Schumann,  Btilow,  Tau- 
sig  and  Rubinstein,  but  I  don't  find  it  very  easy  to  do,  as 
they  are  all  so  different.  Clara  Schumann  is  entirely  a 
classic  player.  Beethoven's  sonatas,  and  Bach,  too,  she 
plays  splendidly ;  but  she  doesn't  seem  to  me  to  have 
any  finesse,  or  much  poetry  in  her  playing.  There's 
nothing  subtle  in  her  conception.  She  has  a  great  deal 
of  fire,  and  her  whole  style  is  grand,  finished,  perfectly 
rounded  off,  solid  and  satisfactory — what  the  Germans 
call  gediegen.  She  is  a  healthy  artist  to  listen  to,  but 
there  is  nothing  of  the  analytic,  no  Balzac  or  Hawthorne 
about  her.  Beethoven's  Variations  in  C  minor  are,  per- 
haps,  the  best  performance  I  ever  heard  from  her,  and 
they  are  immensely  difficult,  too;  I  thought  she  did 
them  better  than  Bulow,  in  spite  of  Bulow's  being  such  a 
great  Beethovenite.  I  think  she  repeats  the  same  pieces 
a  good  deal,  possibly  because  she  finds  the  modern  fash- 
ion of  playing  everything  without  notes  very  trying. 
I've  even  heard  that  she  cries  over  the  necessity  of  doing 
it ;  and  certainly  it  is  a  foolish  thing  to  make  a  point  of, 
with  so  very  great  an  artist  as  Clara  Schumann. — If 
people  could  only  be  allowed  to  have  their  own  individ- 
uality ! 

Bulow's  playing  is  more  many-sided,  and  is  chiefly  dis- 
tinguished by  its  great  vigor;  there  is  no  end  to  his 
nervous  energy,  and  the  more  he  plays,  the  more  the 
interest  increases.  He  is  my  favourite  of  tlie  four.  But 
he  plays  Chopin  just  as  well  as  he  does  Beethoven,  and 


/von  BULOW  and  RUBINSTEIN.  275 

Schumann,  too.  Altogether  he  is  a  superlative  pianist, 
t^odgh  by  no  means  unerring  in  his  performance.  Fve 
heard  him  get  dreadfully  mixed  up.  I  think  he  trusts 
too  much  to  his  memory,  and  that  he  does  not  prepare 
sufficiently.  He  plays  everything  by  heart,  and  such 
programmes !  He  always  hits  the  nail  plump  on  the 
head,  and  such  a  grasp  as  he  has !  His  chords  take  firm 
hold  of  you.  For  instance,  in  the  beginning  of  the  two 
last  movements  of  the  MoonHght  Sonata,  you  should 
hear  him  run  up  that  arpeggio  in  the  right  hand  so  hghtly 
and  pianissimo,  every  note  so  dehcately  articulated,  and 
then  crashsmcLsh  on  those  two  chords  on  the  top !  And 
when  he  plays  Bach's  gavottes,  gigues,  etc.,  in  the  Eng- 
lish Suites,  a  laughing,  roguish  look  comes  over  his 
face,  and  he  puts  the  most  indescribable  drollery  and 
originality  into  them.  You  see  that  "he  sees  the 
point"  so  well,  and  that  makes  you  see  it,  too.  Yes,  it 
is  good  fun  to  hear  Billow  do  these  things. — Perhaps 
the  best  summing  up  of  his  peculiar  greatness  would 
be  to  say  that  he  impresses  you  as  using  the  instru- 
ment only  to  express  ideas.  With  him  you  forget  aU 
about  the  piano,  and  are  absorbed  only  in  the  thought 
or  the  passion  of  the  piece. 

Rubinstein  you've  heard.  Most  people  put  him  next 
to  Liszt.  Your  finding  him  cold  surprised  me,  for  if 
there  is  a  thing  he  is  celebrated  here  for,  it  is  the  fire  and 
passion  of  his  playing,  and  for  his  imagination  and  spon- 
taneity. I  think  that  Tausig,  Bulow,  and  Clara  Schu- 
maim,  all  three,  have  it  all  cut  and  dried  beforehand, 
how  they  are  going  to  play  a  piece,  but  Rubinstein  cre- 
ates at  the  instant.    He  plays  without  plan.    Probably 


276  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

the  afternoon  you  heard  him  he  did  not  feel  in  the  mood, 
and  so  was  not  at  his  best.  As  a  composer  he  far  out- 
ranks the  other  three. 

Tausig  resembled  liszt  more  in  that  subtlety  which 
Liszt  has,  and  consequently  he  was  a  better  Chopin 
player  than  anybody  else  except  Liszt.  I  never  shall 
forget  his  playing  of  Chopin's  great  Ballade  in  G  minor 
the  very  first  time  I  heard  him  in  concert.  It  is  a 
divine  composition,  and  his  rendering  of  it  was  not  only 
all  warmth  and  fervour;  it  was  also  so  wonderfully 
poetic  that  it  fairly  cast  a  spell  upon  the  audience,  and  a 
minute  or  two  went  by  before  they  could  begin  to 
applaud.  It  was  like  a  dream  of  beauty  suspended  in 
the  air  before  you — floating  there — and  you  didn't 
want  to  disturb  it.  Tausig  had  an  intense  love 
for  Chopin,  and  always  wished  he  could  have  known 
him.  I  think  that  he  had  more  virtuosity,  and  yet 
more  dehcacy  of  feeling,  than  either  Rubinstein  or 
Bulow.  His  finish,  perfection,  and  above  all  his  touch, 
were  above  anything.  But,  except  in  Chopin,  he  was 
cold,  at  least  in  the  concert  room.  In  the  conservatory 
he  seemed  to  be  a  very  passionate  player ;  but,  somehow, 
in  public  that  was  not  the  case.  Unfortunately,  I  had 
studied  so  little  at  that  time,  that  I  don't  feel  as  if  I 
were  competent  to  judge  him.  He  was  Liszt's  favourite, 
and  Liszt  said,  "He  will  be  the  inheritor  of  my  playing ;" 
but  I  doubt  if  this  would  have  been,  for  the  winter  before 
Tausig  died,  KuUak  remarked  to  me  that  his  playing 
became  more  and  more  "  dry "  every  year,  probably  on 
account  of  his  morbid  aversion  to  "  Spectakel,"  as  he 
called  it ;  whereas  Liszt  gives  the  reins  to  the  emotions 
always.  ^ 


TAUSIG'S  ESCAPADES.  277 

When  I  was  in  Weimar  I  heard  a  great  deal  about 
Tausig's  escapades  when  he  was  studying  there  as  a  boy. 
They  say  he  was  awfully  wild  and  reckless  at  that  time, 
and  Liszt  paid  his  debts  over  and  over  again.  Sometimes 
in  aristocratic  parties,  when  Liszt  did  not  feel  like  play- 
ing himself,  he  would  tell  Tausig  to  play,  and  perhaps 
Tausig  would  not  feel  like  it,  either.  He  had  the  most 
enormous  strength  in  his  fingers,  though  his  hands  were 
small,  and  he  would  go  to  the  piano  and  pretend  he  was 
going  to  play,  and  strike  the  first  chords  with  such  a 
crash  that  three  or  four  strings  would  snap  almost  imme- 
diately, and  then,  of  course,  the  piano  was  used  up  for 
the  evening ! 

Tausig's  father  once  procured  him  a  splendid  grand 
piano  from  Leipsic,  and  shortly  after,  Tausig  whittled 
off  the  corners  of  all  the  keys,  so  as  to  make  them  more 
difficult  to  strike,  and  his  father  had  to  pay  a  large  sum 
to  have  them  repaired.  Another  time  he  was  presented 
with  a  set  of  chess-men,  and  the  next  day  some  one  on 
visiting  him  observed  the  pieces  all  lying  about  the  floor. 
"Why,  Tausig,  what  has  happened  to  your  chess-men?" 
"  Oh,  I  wanted  to  see  if  they  were  easily  broken,  so  I 
knocked  up  the  board."  He  seemed  to  be  possessed  with 
a  spirit  of  destruction.  Gottschal  told  me  that  one  time 
when  Tausig  was  "hard  up"  for  money,  he  sold  the 
score  of  Liszt's  Faust  for  five  thalers  to  a  servant,  along 
with  a  great  pile  of  his  own  notes.  The  servant  disposed 
of  them  to  some  waste-paper  man,  and  Gottschal,  acci- 
dentally hearing  of  it,  went  to  the  man  and  purchased 
them.  Then  he  went  to  Liszt  to  tell  him  that  he  had  the 
score.    As  it  happened  the  publisher  had  written  for  it 


278  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

that  very  day  and  Liszt  was  turning  the  house  upside 
down,  looking  for  it  everywhere. 

At  that  time  he  was  living  in  an  immense  house  on 
a  hill  here,  that  they  call  the  Altenburg.  Liszt  oc- 
cupied the  first  floor,  a  princely  friend  the  second,  and 
the  [top  story  was  one  grand  ball-room  in  which  were 
generally  nine  grand  pianos  standing.  They  used  to 
give  the  most  magnificent  entertainments,  and  Liszt 
spent  thirty  thousand  thalers  a  year.  He  lived  like  a 
prince  in  those  days — very  different  from  his  present 
simplicity.  Well,  he  was  in  an  awful  state  of  mind 
because  his  score  was  nowhere  to  be  found.  "  A  whole 
year's  labor  lost !"  he  cried,  and  he  was  in  such  a  rage, 
that  when  Gottschal  asked  him  for  the  third  time 
what  he  was  looking  for,  he  turned  and  stamped  his 
foot  at  him  and  said,  "  You  confounded  fellow,  can't 
you  leave  me  in  peace,  and  not  torment  me  with  your 
stupid  questions?"  Gottschal  knew  perfectly  well 
whatVas  wanting,  but  he  wished  to  have  a  little  fun 
out  of  the  matter.  At  last  he  took  pity  on  Liszt,  and 
said,  "  Herr  Doctor,  I  know  what  you've  lost.  It  is 
the  score  to  your  Faust."  "  Oh,"  said  Liszt,  changing 
his  tone'immediately,  "do  you  know  anything  of  it?" 
"  Of  course  I  do,"  said  Gottschal,  and  proceeded  to 
unfold  Master  Tausig's  performance,  and  how  he  had 
rescued  the  precious  music.  Liszt  was  transported 
with  joy  that  it  was  found,  and  called  up-stairs,  "Car- 
olina, Carolina,  we're  saved  !  Gottschal  has  rescued 
us;"  and  then  Gottschal  said  that  Liszt  embraced 
him  in  his  transport,  and  could  not  say  or  do  enough 
to  make  up  for  his  having  been  so  rude  to  him.     Well, 


TAUSIQ  AS  A  COMPOSER.  279 

you  "Vfould  have  supposed  that  it  was  now  all  up  with 
Master  Tausig;  but  not  at  all.  A  few  days  after- 
ward was  Tausig's  birthday,  and  Carolina  took  Gott- 
schal  aside,  and  begged  him  to  drop  the  subject  of 
the  note  stealing,  for  Liszt  doted  so  on  his  Carl  that 
he  wished  to  forget  it.  Sure  enough,  Liszt  kissed 
Carl  and  congratulated  him  on  his  birthday,  and  con- 
soled himself  with  his  same  old  observation,  *'  You'll 
either  turn  out  a  great  blockhead,  my  little  Carl,  or  a 
great  master." 

Tausig  had  a  great  ambition  to  be  a  composer,  and 
in  his  early  youth  he  published  a  number  of  composi- 
tions. Later  on  he  became  intensely  critical  of  his 
own  work,  and  finally  bought  up  all  the  copies  he 
could  lay  hands  on  and  burnt  them  !  This  is  entirely 
characteristic  of  his  sense  of  perfection,  which  was 
extreme,  and  may  serve  as  an  example  to  young  com- 
posers who  are  ambitious  of  saying  something  in 
music,  when  very  often  they  have  nothing  to  say ! 
Indeed,  I  am  often  amazed  at  the  temerity  with  which 
men  will  rush  into  print,  quite  oblivious  of  the  fact 
that  it  requires  enormous  talent  to  produce  even  a 
short  piece  of  music  that  is  worth  anything.  Only  a 
genius  can  do  it. 

Tausig,  in  my  opinion,  did  possess  exceptional 
genius  in  composition,  though  he  left  but  few  works 
behind  him  to  attest  it.  Prominent  among  these  are 
his  unique  arrangements  of  three  of  Strauss's  Waltzes. 
He  had  a  passion  for  philosophy,  and  was  deeply  read 
in  Kant  and  Hegel.  These  "  arrangements  "  betray  his 
Tnetaphysical  and  tentative  turn,  and  could  only  have 


280  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

been  the  product  of  the  highest  mental  force  and  cul- 
ture. Calling  the  waltz  itself  the  warp  of  the  compo- 
sition, then  through  its  simple  threads  we  find  darting 
backwards  and  forwards  a  subtle,  complicated  and 
tragic  mind,  an  exquisitely  refined  and  delicate  senti- 
ment, and  a  piquante,  aerial  fancy,  until  finally  is 
wrought  a  brilliant  and  bewildering  transcription — 
transfiguration  rather — of  endless  fascination  and 
tantalizing  beauty,  which  no  one  but  a  virtuoso  can 
play  and  no  one  but  a  connoisseur  can  comprehend. 
In  a  peculiar  manner  his  music  leaves  a  stamp  upon 
the  heart,  and  to  those  who  can  appreciate  it,  Tausig, 
as  a  composer,  is  a  deep  and  irreparable  loss. — If  he 
had  not  original  ideas  of  his  own,  he  certainly  pos- 
sessed the  power  of  putting  an  entirely  new  face  on 
those  of  others. 


WITH  DEPPE. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Gives  up  Kullak  for  Deppe.    Deppe's  Method  in  Touch  and 
in  Scale-Playing.    Fraulein  Steiniger.    Pedal  Study. 

Berlin,  December  11,  1873. 

Since  I  last  wrote  you  I  have  taken  a  very  import- 
ant step,  which  is  this :  After  taking  three  or  four 
lessons  of  Kullak  I  have  given^  him  up  !  and  am  now 
studying  under  a  new  master.  His  name  is  Herr  Oapel- 
meister  Deppe.  I  suppose  you  will  all  think  me 
crazed,  but  I  think  I  know  what  I  am  about.  He 
seems  to  me  a  very  remarkable  man,  and  is  to  me  the 
most  satisfactory  teacher  I've  had  yet.  Of  course  I 
don't  count  in  the  unapproachable  Liszt  when  I  say 
that,  for  Liszt  is  no  "prqfesseur  du piano" as  he  him- 
self used  scornfully  to  remark. 

I  made  Herr  Deppe's  acquaintance  quite  by  chance, 
at  a  musical  party  given  for  Anna  Mehlig  by  an  Amer- 
ican gentleman  living  here.  I  had  often  heard  of 
him,  and  was  very  anxious  to  know  him,  but  somehow 
had  never  compassed  it.  He  is  a  conductor,  to  begin 
with,  and  I  have  often  seen  him  conduct  orchestral 
concerts.  In  fact,  that  was  what  he  first  came  to  Ber- 
lin for,  a  few  years  ago — to  conduct  Stern's  orchestral 
concerts  during  the  latter's  absence  in  Italy.  Deppe 
is  an  accomplished  conductor,  and  I  have  never  heard 
Beethoven's  second  Overture  to  Leonora  sound  as  I 
have  under  his  baton. 

(283) 


284  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

But  it  was  Sherwood  who  first  called  my  attention 
to  him  as  a  teacher.  He  rushed  into  my  room  one 
day,  and  said,  "  Oh,  Fve  just  heard  the  most  beautiful 
playing  that  ever  I  heard  in  my  life  !"  I  asked  him 
who  it  was  that  had  taken  him  so  by  storm,  and  he 
said  it  was  a  young  English  girl  named  Fannie  War- 
burg, and  that  she  was  a  pupil  of  Deppe's.  "Well, 
what  is  it  about  her  that  is  so  remarkable,"  said  I. 
"Oh,  everything! — execution,  expression,  style,  touch 
— all  are  perfect!  I  never  heard  anything  to  equal 
her,  and  I  feel  as  if  I  never  wanted  to  touch  the  piano 
again." 

This  was  such  strong  language  for  Sherwood,  who 
is  generally  very  critical  and  anything  but  enthusi- 
astic, that  my  interest  was  immediately  excited.  He  went 
on  to  tell  me  that  Deppe  had  been  training  this  young 
English  girl,  now  only  eighteen  years  of  age,  with  the 
greatest  care,  for  six  years,  and  that  he  had  such  an 
interest  in  her  that  he  did  not  confine  himself  to  giving 
her  lessons  only,  but  set  himself  to  form  her  whole 
musical  taste  by  taking  her  to  the  best  concerts  and 
to  hear  the  great  operas,  calling  her  attention  to  every 
peculiarity  of  structure  in  a  composition,  and  giving 
her  all  sorts  of  hints  which  only  a  man  of  profound 
musical  culture  could  give.  Sherwood  said,  moreover, 
that  in  summer  he  made  her  go  to  Pyrmont,  which  is  a 
watering  place  near  Hanover,  where  he  goes  himself 
every  year,  and  that  there  he  heard  her  play  every  day 
Mozart's  concertos  and  all  sorts  of  things.  I  thought 
to  myself  at  the  time  that  the  man  who  would  take  so 
much  trouble  for  a  pupil  as  that,  would  have  been 


HERR  CAPELMEISTER  DEPPE.  285 

just  the  one  for  me,  for  it  was  easy  to  see  that  Deppe 
was  teaching  more  for  the  love  of  Art  than  for  love  of 
money — a  rare  thing  in  these  materialistic  days  !  Af- 
terward, you  know,  Miss  B.  spoke  to  me  about  him  in 
Weimar,  and  I  wrote  you  what  she  said. 

Well,  as  I  was  saying,  I  went  to  this  musical  party 
given  to  Anna  Mehlig,  where  there  were  a  number  of 
musicians  and  critics.  I  was  listening  to  Mehlig  play, 
when  suddenly  Sherwood,  who  was  also  present,  stole 
up  to  me  and  said,  "  Come  into  the  next  room  and  be 
introduced  to  Deppe."  At  these  magic  words  I  started, 
and  immediately  did  as  I  was  bid.  I  found  Deppe  in 
one  comer  looking  about  him  in  an  absent  sort  of  way. 
He  was  a  man  of  medium  height,  with  a  great  big 
brain,  keen  blue  eyes  and  delicate  little  mouth,  and  he 
had  a  most  cheery  and  sunny  expression.  He  shook 
hands,  and  then  we  sat  down  and  got  into  a  most  ani- 
mated conversation — all  about  music.  I  told  him  how 
interested  I  was  by  all  I  had  heard  of  him — ^how  I  had 
returned  to  Kullak  for  a  last  trial — how  tired  I  was  of 
his  eternal  pedagogism,  and  how  I  should  like  to 
study  with  him. 

He  asked  me  what  my  chief  difficulty  was,  where- 
upon I  answered  "the  technique,  of  course."  He 
smiled,  and  said  "that  was  the  smallest  difficulty,  and 
that  anybody  could  master  execution  if  they  knew  how 
to  attack  it,  unless  there  was  some  want  of  proper 
development  of  the  hand."  I  said  I  had  studied  very 
hard,  but  that  I  hadn't  mastered  it,  and  that  there  was 
always  some  hard  place  in  every  piece  which  I  couldn't 
get  the  better  of.    He  said  he  was  sure  he  could  rem- 


286  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

edy  the  deficiency,  and  that  if  I  would  show  him  my 
hand  without  a  glove,  he  could  tell  directly  what  I  was 
capable  of.  I  wouldn't  pull  it  off,  however,  because  I 
was  afraid  he  might  find  some  radical  defect  or  weak- 
ness in  it,  but  I  was  so  charmed  with  the  way  he  made 
light  of  the  technique,  and  with  the  absolute  cer- 
tainty he  seemed  to  have  that  I  could  overcome  it, 
that  I  promised  him  that  I  would  go  and  play  to  him 
the  following  Wednesday. 

Accordingly  on  the  following  Wednesday  I  presented 
myself.  I  had  expected  to  stay  about  half  an  hour, 
but  I  ended  by  staying  three  solid  hours,  and  we  talked 
as  fast  as  we  could  all  the  while,  too  !  So  you  may 
imagine  we  had  a  good  deal  to  say.  He  lives  in  two 
little  rooms  on  the  K5niggratzer  Strasse,  only  four 
doors  from  the  W.'s,  where  I  boarded  for  so  long. 
Now  if  I  had  only  known  I  was  close  to  such  a  teacher ! 
We  must  often  have  passed  each  other  in  the  street, 
and  where  was  my  good  angel  that  he  did  not  touch 
my  arm  and  say, "  There's  the  man  for  you  ?" — Fright- 
ful to  think  how  near  one  may  be  to  one's  best  happi- 
ness, or  even  salvation,  and  not  know  it ! 

Deppe's  front  room  was  pretty  much  filled  up  with 
a  grand  piano,  which,  as  well  as  the  chairs  and  most 
other  articles  of  furniture,  was  covered  with  music. 
I  glanced  over  the  pieces  a  little,  and  there  was  nearly 
every  set  of  Etudes  under  the  sun,  it  seemed  to  me,  as 
well  as  concertos  and  pieces  by  all  the  great  com- 
posers, fingered  and  marked  with  pencil  in  the  most 
minute  way.  It  was  enough  simply  to  turn  the  leaves, 
to  see  what  a  study  he  must  have  made  of  everything 


A  DISMAL  PROSPECT.  287 

he  gave  his  scholars.  His  inner  room  had  double 
doors  to  it  to  prevent  the  sound  from  penetrating.  I 
rapped  at  the  outside  one,  and  presently  I  heard  a 
great  turning  and  rattling  of  keys,  and  then  they 
opened,  and  Deppe  was  before  me.  He  put  out  his 
hand  in  the  most  cordial  and  friendly  way,  and  greeted 
me  with  the  most  winning  smile  in  the  world.  I  took 
off  my  things  and  began  to  play  to  him.  He  listened 
quietly,  and  without  interrupting  me.  When  I  had 
finished  he  told  me  that  my  difficulties  were  principally 
mechanical  ones — that  I  had  conception  and  style,  but 
that  my  execution  was  uneven  and  hurried,  my  wrist 
stiff,  the  third  and  fourth  fingers*  very  weak,  the  tone 
not  full  and  round  enough,  that  I  did  not  know  how 
to  use  the  pedal,  and  finally,  that  I  was  too  nervous 
and  flurried. 

"  If  possible,  you  must  get  over  this  agitation,"  said 
he.  "HorenSie  Sich  spielen  (Listen  to  your  own  play- 
ing). You  have  talent  enough  to  get  over  all  your 
difficulties  if  you  will  be  patient,  and  do  just  as  I  tell 
you."  "  I  will  do  anything,"  I  said.  "Very  good.  But 
I  warn  you  that  you  will  have  to  give  up  all  playing 
for  the  present  except  what  I  give  you  to  study,  and 
those  things  you  must  play  very  slowly." 

This  was  a  pleasant  prospect,  as  I  was  just  preparing 
to  give  a  concert  in  Berlin,  under  Kullak's  auspices, 
and  had  already  got  my  programme  half  learned ! 
But  I  had  "  invoked  the  demon,"  and  I  felt  bound  to 
give  the  required  pledge. — So  here  I  am,  after  four 
years  abroad  with  the  "  greatest  masters,"  going  back 

*In  German,  the  fourth  and  fifth  fingers. 


288  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

to  first  principles,  and  beginning  with  five-finger  exer- 
cises !  I  had  never  been  given  any  particular  rule  for 
holding  my  hand,  further  than  the  general  one  of 
curving  the  fingers  and  lifting  them  very  high.  Deppe 
objects  to  this  extreme  lifting  of  the  fingers.  He  says 
it  makes  a  knicJc  in  the  muscle,  and  you  get  all  the 
strength  simply  from  the  finger,  whereas,  when  you 
lift  the  finger  moderately  high,  the  muscle  from  the 
whole  arm  comes  to  bear  upon  it.  The  tone,  too,  is 
entirely  different.  Lifting  the  finger  so  very  high, 
and  striking  with  force,  stiffens  the  wrist,  and  pro- 
duces a  slight  jar  in  the  hand  which  cuts  off  the  sing- 
ing quality  of  the  tone,  like  closing  the  mouth  sud- 
denly in  singing.  It  produces  the  effect  of  a  blow 
upon  the  key,  and  the  tone  is  more  a  sharp,  quick  tone ; 
whereas,  by  letting  the  finger  just  fall — it  is  fuller,  less 
loud,  but  more  penetrating.  I  suppose  the  hammer 
falls  back  more  slowly  from  the  string,  and  that  makes 
the  tone  sing  longer. 

Don't  you  remember  my  saying  that  Liszt  had  such 
an  extraordinary  way  of  playing  a  melody?  That  it 
did  not  seem  to  be  so  loud  and  cut-out  as  most  artists 
make  it,  and  yet  it  was  so  penetrating?  Well,  dear, 
there  was  the  secret  of  it !  "  Spielen  Sie  mit  dem 
Gewicht  (Play  with  weight),*'  Deppe  will  say.  "  Don't 
strike,  but  let  the  fingers  fall.  At  first  the  tone  will 
be  nearly  inaudible,  but  with  practice  it  will  gain  every 
day  in  power." — After  Deppe  had  directed  my  atten- 
tion to  it,  I  remembered  that  I  had  never  seen  Liszt 
lift  up  his  fingers  so  fearfully  high  as  the  other  schools, 
and  especially  the  Stuttgardt  one,  make  such  a  point  of 


THE  POSITION  OF  THE  HAND.  289 

doing.*  That  is  where  Mehlig  misses  it,  and  is  what 
makes  her  playing  so  sharp  and  cornered  at  times. 
When  you  lift  the  fingers  so  high  you  cannot  bind  the 
tones  so  perfectly  together.  There  is  always  a  break. 
Deppe  makes  me  listen  to  every  tone,  and  carry  it  over 
to  the  next  one,  and  not  let  any  one  finger  get  an 
undue  prominence  over  the  other — a  thing  that  is 
immensely  difficult  to  do — so  I  have  given  up  all  pieces 
for  the  present,  and  just  devote  myself  to  playing 
these  little  exercises  right. 

Deppe  not  only  insists  upon  the  fingers  being  as 
curved  as  possible,  so  that  you  play  exactly  on  the 
tips  of  them,  but  he  turns  the  hand  very  much  out, 
so  as  to  make  the  knuckles  of  the  third  and  fourth 
fingers  higher  than  those  of  the  first  and  second,  and 
as  he  does  not  permit  you  to  throw  out  the  elbow  in 
doing  this,  the  turn  must  he  made  from  the  wrist. 
The  thumb  must  also  be  slightly  curved,  and  quite  free 
from  the  hand.  Many  persons  impede  their  execution 
by  not  keeping  the  thumb  independent  enough  of  the 
rest  of  the  hand.  The  moment  it  contracts,  the  hand 
is  enfeebled.  The  object  of  turning  the  hand  outward 
is  to  favour  the  third  and  fourth  fingers,  and  give  them 
a  higher  fall  when  they  are  lifted.  This  strength- 
ens them  very  much.  It  also  looks  much  prettier 
when  the  outer  edge  of  the  hand  is  high,  and  one  of 
Deppe's  grand  mottoes  is,  "  When  it  looks  pretty  then 
it  is  right." 

After  Deppe  had  put  me  through  five-finger  exer- 
cises on  the  foregoing  principles,  and  taught  me  to  lift 

*See  p.  220. 

19 


290  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

each  finger  and  let  it  fall  with  a  perfectly  loose  wrist, 
(a  most  deceitful  point,  by-the  way,  for  it  took  me  a 
long  while  to  distinguish  when  I  was  stiffening  the 
wrist  involuntarily  and  when  I  wasn't,)  he  proceeded 
to  the  scale.  He  always  begins  with  the  one  in  E 
major  as  the  most  useful  to  practice.  His  principle  in 
playing  the  scale  is  not  to  turn  the  thumb  under !  but 
to  turn  a  little  on  each  finger  end,  pressing  it  firmly 
down  on  the  key,  and  screwing  it  round,  as  it  were,  on  a 
pivot,  till  the  next  finger  is  brought  over  its  own  key. 
In  this  way  he  prepares  for  the  thumb,  which  is  kept 
free  from  the  hand  and  slightly  curved. — He  told  me 
to  play  the  scale  of  E  major  slowly  with  the  right 
hand,  which  I  did.  He  curved  his  hand  round  mine, 
and  told  me  as  long  as  I  played  right,  his  hand  would 
not  interfere  with  mine.  I  played  up  one  octave,  and 
then  I  wished  to  go  on  by  placing  my  first  finger  on  F 
sharp.  To  do  that  I  naturally  turned  my  hand  out- 
ward, so  as  to  make  the  step  from  my  thumb  on  E 
to  F  sharp  with  the  first,  but  it  came  bang  up  against 
Deppe's  hand  like  a  sort  of  blockade.  "  Go  on,"  said 
Deppe.  "  I  can't,  when  you  keep  your  hand  right  in 
the  way,"  said  I.  "  My  hand  isn't  in  the  way,"  said  he, 
"  but  your  hand  is  out  of  position." 

So  I  started  again.  This  time  I  reflected,  and  when 
I  got  my  third  finger  on  D  sharp,  I  kept  my  hand 
slanting  from  left  to  right,  but  I  prepared  for  the  turn- 
ing under  of  the  thumb,  and  for  getting  my  first  finger 
on  F  sharp,  by  turning  my  wrist  sharply  out.  That 
brought  my  thumb  down  on  the  note  and  prepared 
me  instantly  for  the  next  step.    In  fact,  my  wrist  car- 


TKE  '*EGG  OF  COLUMBUS."  291 

ried  my  finger  right  on  to  the  sharp  without  any  change 
in  the  position  of  the  hand,  thus  giving  the  most  per- 
fect legato  in  the  world,  and  I  continued  the  whole 
scale  in  the  same  manner.  Just  try  it  once,  and  you'll 
see  how  ingenious  it  is — only  one  must  be  careful  not 
to  throw  out  the  elbow  in  turning  out  the  wrist.  As 
in  the  ascending  scale  one  has  to  turn  the  thumb  un- 
der twice  in  every  octave,  Deppe's  way  of  playing 
avoids  twice  throwing  the  hand  out  of  position  as  one 
does  by  the  old  way  of  playing  straight  along,  and  the 
smoothness  and  rapidity  of  the  scale  must  be  much 
greater.  The  direction  of  the  hand  in  running  pas- 
sages is  always  a  little  oblique. 

Don't  you  remember  my  telling  you  that  Liszt  has 
an  inconceivable  lightness,  swiftness  and  smoothness 
of  execution?  When  Deppe  was  explaining  this  to 
me,  I  suddenly  remembered  that  when  he  was  playing 
scales  or  passages,  his  fingers  seemed  to  lie  across  the 
keys  in  a  slanting  sort  of  way,  and  to  execute  these 
rapid  passages  almost  without  any  perceptible  motion. 
Well,  dear,  there  it  was  again  !  As  Liszt  is  a  great  ex- 
perimentalist, he  probably  does  all  these  things  by  in- 
stinct, and  without  reasoning  it  out,  but  that  is  why 
nobody's  else  playing  sounds  like  his.  Some  of  his 
scholars  had  most  dazzling  techniques,  and  I  used  to 
rack  my  brains  to  find  out  how  it  was,  that  no  matter 
how  perfectly  any  body  else  played,  the  minute  Liszt 
sat  down  and  played  the  same  thing,  the  previous  play- 
ing seemed  rough  in  comparison.  I'm  sure  Deppe  is 
the  only  master  in  the  world  who  has  thought  that 
out ;  though,  as  he  says  himself,  it  is  the  egg  of  Oo- 
lumbus — "  when  you  know  it !" 


292  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

Deppe  always  begins  the  scale  in  the  middle  of  the 
piano,  and  plays  up  three  octaves  with  the  right,  and 
down  three  octaves  with  the  left  hand.  He  says  that 
all  the  difficulty  is  in  going  up,  and  that  coming  back 
is  perfectly  easy,  as  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  let  the  fin- 
gers run  !  He  always  makes  me  play  each  hand  sep- 
arately at  first,  and  very  slowly,  and  then  both  hands 
together  in  contrary  direction,  gradually  quickening 
the  tempo.    After  that  in  thirds,  sixths,  octaves,  etc. 


Berlin,  December  25, 1873. 

As  you  may  imagine,  this  is  anything  but  a  "  Merfy 
Christmas"  for  me,  for  I  am  simply  the  most  com- 
pletely houleversee  mortal  in  this  world  !  Here  I  was 
a  month  ago  preparing  to  give  a  concert  of  my  own. 
Then  I  have  the  good  or  bad  luck  to  make  Herr 
Deppe's  acquaintance,  and  to  find  out  how  I  "ought" 
to  have  been  studying  for  the  last  four  years.  I  give 
up  Kullak  and  my  concert  plan,  thinking  I'll  study 
with  Deppe  and  come  out  under  his  auspices.  After 
two  lessons  with  him,  comes  your  letter  with  the 
news  of  this  awful  national  panic  in  it. — Could 
anything  be.  worse  for  a  person  who  has  really  consci- 
entiously tried  to  attain  her  object?  I'm  like  the  pro- 
fessor who  gave  some  lectures  to  prove  a  certain 
theory,  and  when  he  got  to  the  fourteenth,  he  decided 
it  was  false,  and  devoted  the  remaining  ones  to  pulling 
it  all  down ! 

However,  after  practicing  the  scale  on  Deppe's  prin* 
ciples,  I  find  that  they  open  the  road  to  an   ease,  ra- 


SITTING  LOW  AT  THE  PIANO  293 

pidity,  sureness  and  elegance  of  execution  which,  with 
my  stiff  hand,  I've  not  been  able  to  see  even  in  the 
dim  distance  before  !  One  of  his  grand  hobbies  is  tone, 
and  he  never  lets  me  play  a  note  without  listening 
to  it  in  the  closest  manner,  and  making  it  sound  what 
he  calls  "bewilsst  (conscious)." — No  more  mechanical 
"  straying  of  the  hands  over  the  keys  (as  the  novel- 
ists always  say  of  their  heroines)  thinking  of  all  sorts 
of  things  the  while,"  but  instead,  a  close  pinning 
down  of  the  whole  attention  to  hear  whether  one  fin- 
ger predominates  over  the  other,  and  to  note  the  effect 
produced.  I  was  perfectly  amazed  to  see  how  many 
little  ugly  habits  I  had  to  correct  of  which  I  had  not 
been  the  least  aware.  It  seems  as  though  my  ears  had 
been  opened  for  the  first  time  !  Such  concentration 
is  very  exhausting,  and  after  two  or  three  hours'  prac- 
tice I  feel  as  if  I  should  drop  off  the  chair. 

I  forgot  to  say  before,  that  Deppe  enjoins  sitting 
very  low — that  is — not  higher  than  a  common  chair. 
He  says  one  may  have  "  the  soul  of  an  angel,"  and  yet 
if  you  sit  high,  the  tone  will  not  sound  poetic.  More- 
over, in  a  low  seat  the  fingers  have  to  work  a  great 
deal  more,  because  you  can't  assist  them  by  bringing 
the  weight  of  your  arm  to  bear.  "  Your  elbow  must 
be  lead  and  your  wrist  s> feather."  Of  course  the  seat 
must  be  modified  to  suit  the  person.  I  prefer  a  low 
seat  myself,  and  have  even  had  my  piano-chair  cut  off 
two  inches. 

Before  definitely  deciding  to  give  up  Kullak  and 
come  to  him,  Deppe  insisted  that  I  should  hear  one  of 
his  scholars  play.    Fannie  Warburg  is  in  England  on 


294  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

a  visit,  so  I  could  not  hear  her,  but  he  has  another 
young  lady  pupil  of  whom  he  is  very  proud,  named 
Fraulein  Steiniger.  This  young  lady  had  been  origi- 
nally a  pupil  of  Kullak's,  and  I  had  heard  her  play 
once  in  his  conservatory.  She  was  a  girl  of  a  good 
deal  of  talent,  but  not  a  genius.  Deppe  said  that 
when  she  came  to  him  she  had  all  my  defects,  only 
worse.  She  has  been  studying  with  him  in  the  most 
tremendous  manner  for  fifteen  months,  and  he  wanted 
me  to  see  what  he  had  made  of  her  in  that  time.  She 
was  going  to  play  in  a  concert  in  Ltibeck,  and  he  was 
to  rehearse  her  pieces  with  her  on  Saturday  for  the 
last  time.  He  begged  me  to  come  then,  and  accord- 
ingly I  went. 

I  was  very  much  struck  by  her  playing,  which  was 
remarkable,  not  so  much  for  sentiment  or  poetry,  of 
which  she  had  little,  but  for  the  mastery  she  had  over 
the  instrument,  and  for  the  perfection  with  which  she 
did  everything.  There  was  a  clarity  and  limpidity 
about  her  trills  and  runs  which  surprised  and  delighted. 
Her  left  hand  was  as  able  as  the  right,  and  had  a  way 
of  taking  up  a  variation  like  nothing  at  all  and  run- 
ning along  with  it  through  the  most  complicated  pas- 
sages, which  almost  made  you  laugh  with  pleasure ! 
There  was  a  wonderful  vitality,  elasticity  and  snap  to 
her  chords  which  impressed  me  very  much,  and  a  unity 
of  effect  about  her  whole  performance  of  any  compo- 
sition which  I  don't  remember  to  have  heard  from  the 
pupils  of  other  masters.  The  position  of  the  hand 
was  exquisite,  and  all  difficulties  seemed  to  melt  away 
like  snow  or  to  be  surmounted  with  the  greatest  ease. 


"THE  GREAT  E  FLAT."  295 

I  saw  at  a  glance  that  Deppe  is  a  magnificent  teacher, 
and  I  believe  that  he  •  has  originated  a  school  of  his 
own. 

Fraulein  Steiniger  played  a  charming  Quintette  by 
Hummel,  a  beautiful  Suite  by  Raff,  a  Prelude  and  Fu- 
gue by  Bach,  and  two  Studies,  and  all,  as  it  seemed  to 
me,  exactly  as  they  ought  to  be  played.  After  she  had 
finished,  we  had  a  long  talk  about  KuUak.  She  said 
she  staid  with  him  year  after  year,  doing  her  very  best, 
and  never  arriving  at  anything.  At  last,  as  he  did 
nothing  for  her,  she  resolved  to  strike  out  for  herself, 
and  went  to  Deppe,  who  was  at  that  time  conducting 
Stern's  orchestral  concerts,  and  asked  him  if  he  would 
not  allow  her  to  play  in  one  of  them.  Deppe  re- 
ceived her  with  his  characteristic  kindness  and  cor- 
diality, but  told  her  that  before  he  could  promise  he 
must  first  hear  her  in  private,  and  he  set  a  time  for 
the  purpose. 

She  had  prepared  Beethoven's  great  E  flat  Concerto, 
which  everybody  plays  here.  It  is  as  difficult  for 
Deppe  to  listen  to  that  concerto  as  it  is  for  Liszt  to 
hear  Chopin's  B  flat  minor  Scherzo.  "  We  poor  con- 
ductors!" he  will  exclaim,  "will  the  artists  always 
keep  bringing  us  Beethoven's  E  flat  Concerto?  Why 
not,  for  once,  the  B  flat,  or  a  Mozart  concerto?  Then 
we  should  say  '«7a,  mit  Yergnugen  (Yes,  with  pleasure).' 
Aber  Jeder  will  grossartig  spielen  heutzutage  (But 
everybody  wants  to  play  on  a  grand  scale  now-a-days). 
The  mighty  rushing  torrent  is  the  fashion,  but  who  can 
do  the  wimpling,  dimpling  streamlet!  Nobody  has 
any  fingers  for  the  kleine  Passagen  (little  fine  pas- 


296  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

sages).  Sie  hahen,  Alle,  keine  Finger  {None  of  them 
have  any  fingers)."  He  then  winds  up  by  saying  he  is 
the  only  man  in  Germany  who  knows  how  to  give 
them  "  fingers."  "  Ich  veiss  worauf  es  ankommt  (1 
know  what  it  depends  on) !" 

Nevertheless,  he  listened  patiently  for  the  thou- 
sandth time  to  the  E  flat  concerto,  as  Steiniger  played 
it.  He  then  quietly  called  her  attention  to  the  fact 
that  she  had  "  no  fingers,"  and  she  was  in  perfect  des- 
pair. He  saw  that  she  was  energetic  and  willing  to 
work,  and  he  at  once  took  her  in  hand  and  began  to 
drill  her.  She  withdrew  entirely  from  society  and  de- 
voted herself  to  practicing,  following  his  directions  im- 
plicitly. She  is  now  a  beautiful  artist,  and  he  chalks 
out  every  step  of  her  career.  I  don't  doubt  she  will 
play  in  the  Gewandhaus  in  Leipsic  eventually,  which 
is  the  height  of  every  artist's  ambition,  and  stamps  you 
as  "  finished."  Then  you  are  recognized  all  over  the 
world.  Deppe  does  not  mean  to  let  her  play  here  till 
she  has  first  played  in  many  little  places  and  suc- 
ceeded. As  he  said  to  me  the  other  day,  "  When  you 
wish  to  spring  over  tall  mountains,  you  must  first 
jump  over  little  mounds  (kleine  Graben.)"  He 
counsels  me  to  take  a  lesson  of  this  young  lady  every 
day  for  a  time,  so  as  to  get  over  the  technical  part 
quickly. 

As  for  Deppe's  young  protegee,  Fannie  Warburg, 
whom  he  has  formed  completely,  everybody  says  that 
she  is  wonderful.  FrUulein  Steiniger  says  that  when 
you  hear  her  play  you  feel  almost  as  if  it  were  some- 
thing holy,  it  is  so  perfect  and  so  extraordinarily  spirit- 


STUDYING  THE  PEDAL.  297 

ual.  She  is  only  eighteen.  Deppe  showed  me  the  list 
of  compositions  that  she  has  already  played  in  concerts 
elsewhere,  and  I  was  astonished  at  the  variety  and 
compass  of  it.  Every  great  composer  was  represented. 
Among  other  refinements  of  his  teaching,  Deppe 
asked  me  if  I  had  ever  made  any  pedal  studies.  I  said 
**  No — nobody  had  ever  said  anything  to  me  about  the 
pedal  particularly,  except  to  avoid  the  use  of  it  in 
runs,  and  I  supposed  it  was  a  matter  of  taste."  He 
picked  out  that  simple  little  study  of  Cramer  in  D 
major  in  the  first  book — you  know  it  well — and  asked 
me  to  play  it.  I  had  played  that  study  to  Tausig,  and 
he  found  no  fault  with  my  use  of  the  pedal ;  so  I  sat 
down  thinking  I  could  do  it  right.  But  I  soon  found 
I  was  mistaken,  and  that  Deppe  had  very  different 
ideas  on  the  subject.  He  sat  down  and  played  it 
phrase  by  phrase,  pausing  between  each  measure,  to  let 
it  "sing."  I  soon  saw  that  it  is  possible  to  get  as 
great  a  virtuosity  with  the  pedal  as  with  anything  else, 
and  that  one  must  make  as  careful  a  study  of  it. 
You  remember  I  wrote  to  you  that  one  secret  of 
Liszt's  effects  was  his  use  of  the  pedal,*  and  how  he 
has  a  way  of  disembodying  a  piece  from  the  piano 
and  seeming  to  make  it  float  in  the  air?  He  makes  a 
spiritual  form  of  it  so  perfectly  visible  to  your  inward 
eye,  that  it  seems  as  if  you  could  almost  hear  it  breathe  ! 
Deppe  seems  to  have  almost  the  same  idea,  though  he 
has  never  heard  Liszt  play.  "  The  Pedal,"  said  he,  "is 
the  lungs  of  the  piano."  He  played  a  few  bars  of  a 
sonata,  and  in  his  whole  method  of  binding  the  notes 

*See  p.  884.  . 


298  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

together  and  managing  the  pedal,  I  recognized  Liszt. 
The  thing  floated ! — ^Unless  Deppe  wishes  the  chord 
to  be  very  brilliant,  he  takes  the  pedal  after  the  chord 
instead  of  simultaneously  with  it.  This  gives  it  a  very 
ideal  sound. — You  may  not  believe  it,  but  it  is  true,  that 
though  Deppe  is  no  pianist  himself,  and  has  the  fun- 
niest little  red  paws  in  the  world,  that  don't  look  as  if 
they  could  do  anything,  he's  got  that  same  touch  and 
quality  of  tone  that  Liszt  has — that  indescribable 
something  that,  when  he  plays  a  few  chords,  merely, 
makes  the  tears  rush  to  your  eyes.  It  is  too  heavenly 
for  anything. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

Chord-Playing.    Deppe  no  "  Mere  Pedagogue."    Sherwood. 

Mozart's  Concertos.    Practicing  Slowly. 

The  Opera  Ball. 

Berlin,  January  2^  1874. 

When  I  had  got  the  principle  of  the  scale  pretty  well 
into  my  head,  what  should  Deppe  rummage  out  but 
Czerny's  "  Schule  der  Geldufigkeit  (School  of  Veloc- 
ity)," which  I  hadn't  looked  at  since  the  days  of  my 
childhood  and  fondly  flattered  myself  I  had  done  with 
forever.  (We  none  of  us  know  what  stands  before 
y  us!)  After  having  studied  Cramer,  Gradus  and 
Chopin,  you  may  imagine  it  was  rather  a  come  down 
to  have  to  take  to  the  School  of  Velocity  again  !  And 
to  study  it  very  slowly  and  with  one  hand  only ! ! 
That  was  adding  insult  to  injury.  Deppe  knows  what 
he  is  about,  though.  He  began  picking  out  passages 
here  and  there  all  through  the  book,  and  making  me 
play  them,  stretching  from  the  thumb  and  turning  on 
the  fingers  as  often  as  possible.  After  I  have  mastered 
the  passages  I  am  to  learn  a  whole  study,  first  with 
each  hand  alone,  and  then  with  both  together ! 

Deppe  next  proceeded  to  teach  me  how  to  strike 
chords.  I  had  to  learn  to  raise  my  hands  high  over 
the  key-board,  and  let  them  fall  without  any  resistance 
on  the  chord,  and  then  sink  with  the  wrist,  and  take 
up  the  hand  exactly  over  the  notes,  keeping  the  hand 
(290) 


300  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

extended.  There  is  quite  a  little  knack  in  letting  the 
hand  fall  so,  but  when  you  have  once  got  it,  the  chord 
sounds  much  richer  and  fuller. — And  so  on,  ad  infin^ 
itum.  Deppe  had  thought  out  the  best  way  of  doing 
everything  on  the  piano — the  scale,  the  chord,  the 
trill,  octaves,  broken  octaves,  broken  thirds,  broken 
sixths,  arpeggios,  chromatics,  accent,  rhythm — all ! 
He  says  that  the  principle  of  the  scale  and  of  the 
chord  are  directly  opposite.  "In  playing  the  scale 
you  must  gather  your  hand  into  a  nut-shell,  as  it 
were,  and  play  on  the  finger  tips.  In  taking  the  chord, 
on  the  contrary,  you  must  spread  the  hands  as  if  you 
were  going  to  ask  a  blessing."  This  is  particularly 
the  case  with  a  wide  interval.  •  He  told  me  if  I  ever 
heard  Rubinstein  play  again  to  observe  how  he  strikes 
his  chords.  "Nothing  cramped  about  him!  He 
spreads  his  hands  as  if  he  were  going  to  take  in  the 
universe,  and  takes  them  up  with  the  greatest  freedom 
and  abandon P"*  Deppe  has  the  greatest  admiration 
for  Rubinstein's  tone,  which  he  says  is  unequaled,  but 
he  places  Tausig  above  him  as  an  artist.  He  said 
Tausig  used  to  come  to  his  room  and  play  to  him,  and 
he  took  off  Tausig's  little  half  bow  and  way  of  seating 
himself  at  the  piano  and  beginning  at  once,  without 
prelude  or  wasting  of  words,  very  funnily  !  He  would 
scarcely  take  time  to  say  "  Outen  Abend  (Good  Even- 
ing)." Deppe  thinks  Tausig  played  some  things 
matchlessly,  but  that  in  others  he  was  dry  and  soul- 
less. Clara  Schumann,  he  says,  is  the  most "  musical' 
of  all  the  great  artists-^and  you  remember  how  im- 
mensely struck  I  was  with  Natalie  Janotha,  who  is 
her  pupil,  and  plays  just  like  her. 


DEPPE  NOT  A  PEDAGOGUE.  301 

From  my  telling  you  so  much  about  technicalities, 
you  must  not  think  Deppe  only  a  pedagogue.  He  is 
in  reality  the  soul  of  music,  and  all  these  things  are 
only  "means  to  an  end."  As  he  says  himself, "  I  always 
hear  the  music  the  people  donH  play."  No  pianist  ever 
entirely  suited  him,  and  this  it  was  that  set  him  to 
examining  the  instrument  in  order  to  see  what  was 
the  matter  with  it.  He  made  friends  with  the  great 
virtuosi,  and  studied  their  ways  of  playing,  and  the 
result  of  all  his  observation  is  that  "  Piano  playing  is 
the  only  thing  where  there  is  something  to  be  done." 
He  declares  that  there  is  so  much  musical  talent  going 
to  waste  in  the  world  that  it  is  "lying  all  about 
the  streets,"  and  he  has  a  most  ingenious  way  of 
accounting  for  the  fact  that  there  are  so  many  great 
pianists  in  spite  of  their  not  knowing  his  method : — 
"  Gifted  people,"  he  says,  "  play  by  the  grace  of  God ; 
but  everybody  could  master  the  technique  on  my 
system ! ! " 

To  show  you  that  it  is  not  alone  my  judgment 
of  Deppe — four  of  KuUak's  best  pupils,  including 
Sherwood!  left  him  for  Deppe,  after  I  did.  They 
got  so  uneasy  from  what  I  told  them,  that  they  went 
to  see  Deppe,  and  as  soon  as  they  heard  Fraulein  Stein- 
iger  play,  they  had  to  admit  that  she  had  got  hold  of 
some  secrets  of  which  they  knew  nothing.  Sherwood. 
you  know,  is  a  positive  genius,  yet  he  is  beginning  all 
over  again,  too.  In  short,  we  are  all  unanimous,  while 
Deppe,  on  his  side,  is  much  gratified  at  having  some 
American  pupils. — He  flatters  himself  that  we  will 
introduce  all  his  cherished  ideas  into  our  "  new  and 
progressive  country." 


302  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

Ah,  if  I  had  only  studied  with  Deppe  before  I  went  to 
Weimar !  When  I  was  there  I  didn't  play  half  as 
often  to  Liszt  as  I  might  have  done,  kind  and  encour- 
aging as  he  always  was  to  me,  for  I  always  felt  I 
wasn't  worthy  to  be  his  pupil !  But  if  I  had  known 
Deppe  four  years  ago,  what  might  I  not  have  been 
now?  After  I  took  my  first  lesson  of  Deppe  this 
thought  made  me  perfectly  wretched.  I  felt  so  dread- 
fully that  I  cried  and  cried.  When  I  woke  up  in  the 
morning  I  began  fco  cry  again.  I  was  so  afflicted 
that  at  last  my  landlady,  who  is  very  kind  and  sympa- 
thetic, asked  me  what  ailed  me.  I  told  her  I  felt  so 
dreadfully  to  think  I  had  met  the  person  I  ought  to  have 
met  four  years  ago,  at  the  last  minute,  so. — "  On  the 
contrary,  you  ought  to  rejoice  that  you  have  met  him 
at  ally^  said  she.  "  Many  persons  go  through  life  with- 
out ever  meeting  the  person  they  wish  to,  or  they  don't 
know  him  when  they  do." — Sensible  woman,  Frau  von 
H. ! — After  that  I  stopped  fretting,  and  tried  to  believe 
that  there  is  "  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends,  rough- 
hew  them  how  we  may." 


Berlin,  February  12, 1874. 
I  am  now  taking  three  lessons  a  week  from  FrUulein 
Steiniger  and  one  lesson  of  Deppe  himself,  and  he  says 
I  am  almost  through  the  technical  preparation,  though 
I  still  practice  only  with  one  hand,  and  very  slowly  all 
the  time.  FrUulein  Steiniger  says  that  she  also  prac- 
ticed slowly  all  the  time  for  six  months,  as  I  am  now 
doing.    In  fact,  she  completely  forgot  how  to  play 


MOZART'S  CONCERTOS.  303 

fast,  and  one  day  when  Deppe  finally  said  to  her  in 
the  lesson,  "  Now  play  fast  for  once,"  she  could  not 
do  it,  and  had  to  learn  it  all  over  again.  Of  course 
she  very  soon  got  her  hand  in  again,  and  now  she  has 
the  most  beautiful  execution,  and  can  play  anything 
perfectly. 

Deppe  wants  me  to  play  a  Mozart  concerto  for  two 
pianos  with  Fraulein  Steiniger,  the  first  thing  I  play 
in  public.  Did  you  know  that  Mozart  wrote  twenty 
concertos  for  the  piano,  and  that  nine  of  them  are 
masterpieces?  Yet  nobody  plays  them.  Why?  Be- 
cause they  are  too  hard,  Deppe  says,  and  Lebert,  the 
head  of  the  Stuttgardt  conservatory,  told  me  the  same 
thing  at  Weimar.  I  remember  that  the  musical  critic 
of  the  Atlantic  Monthly  remarked  that  "  we  should 
regard  Mozart's  passages  and  cadenzas  as  child's  play 
now-a-days."  Child's  play,  indeed!  That  critic, 
whoever  it  is,  "  had  better  go  to  school  again,"  as  0. 
always  says ! 

Deppe  is  remarkable  in  Mozart,  and  has  studied  him 
more  than  anybody  else,  I  fancy.  Indeed,  to  turn 
over  his  concertos,  and  see  how  he  has  fingered  them 
alone,  is  enough  to  make  you  dizzy.  He  is  always  say- 
ing, "  You  must  hear  Fannie  Warburg  play  a  Mozart 
concerto.  She  can  do  it !"  and,  indeed,  I  am  most 
anxious  to  hear  her. 

It  is  ludicrous  to  hear  Deppe  talk  about  the  artists 
that  everybody  else  thinks  so  great.  Having  been  a 
director  of  an  orchestra  for  years,  he  has  constantly 
directed  their  concerts,  and  he  weighs  them  in  a  re- 
lentless balance !   The  other  day  he  gave  me  Mendels- 


304  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

sohn's  Concerto  in  G-  minor,  and  just  at  the  end  of  the 
first  movement  is  a  fearful  break-neck  passage  for 
both  hands.  "  There  !"  cried  Deppe,  "  that's  a  good 
healthy  place.  Kehmen  Sie  das fiir  Ihr  tdgliches  Gehet 
(Take  that  for  your  daily  prayer).  When  you  can  play 
it  eight  times  in  succession  without  missing  a  note, 
I'll  be  satisfied.  That  is  one  of  the  places  that  when 
the  pianists  come  to,  they  get  their  foot  hard  on  to  the 
pedal  and  hold  on  to  it — Herr  Gottl  how  they  hold 
on  to  it — and  so  lie  themselves  through."  He  said  he 
never  heard  anyone  do  it  right  except  those  to  whom 
he  had  taught  it.  Steiniger  played  it  for  me  the  other 
day  and  it  so  astonished  my  ears  that  I  felt  like 
saying,  "  Serr  GottF  too.  It  was  as  if  some  one  had 
snatched  up  a  handful  of  hail  and  dashed  it  all  over 
me.  Br-r-r-zip !  how  it  did  go ! — Like  a  bundle  of 
rockets  touched  off  one  after  the  other.  And  yet  this 
concerto  is  one  of  those  things  that  everybody  thrums, 
and  is  one  of  the  regular  pieces  you  must  have  in 
your  repertoire.  Deppe  was  quite  shocked  to  find  I  had 
never  learned  it. 

My  lesson  usually  lasts  three  hours  !  Nothing  Deppe 
hates  like  being  hurried  over  a  lesson.  He  likes  to 
have  plenty  of  time  to  express  all  his  ideas  and  tell 
you  a  good  many  anecdotes  in  between !  I  usually 
take  my  lessons  from  seven  till  ten  in  the  evening. 
Then  he  puts  on  his  coat  and  saunters  along  with  me 
on  his  way  to  his  "  Kneipe,''  or  beer-garden,  for  he  is 
far  too  sociable  to  go  to  bed  without  having  taken  a 
friendly  glass  of  beer  with  some  one.  Every  block  or 
so  he  will  stand  stock  still  and  impress  some  musical 


GERMAN  DANCING.  305 

point  upon  my  mind,  and  will  often  harangue  me  for 
five  or  ten  minutes  before  moving  on.  It  seems  to  be 
impossible  to  him  to  walk  and  talk  at  the  same  time ! 
In  this  way  you  may  imagine  it  takes  me  a  good  while 
to  get  home. 

On  Tuesday  there  is  to  be  a  grand  ball  at  the 
opera  house  which  the  Emperor  and  the  whole  court 
grace  with  their  presence,  and  lead  off  the  first  Polo- 
naise. There  are  two  of  these  grand  public  balls  every 
winter.  The  tickets  are  sold,  and  it  is  the  sole  occasion 
where  the  public  can  have  the  felicity  of  gazing  upon 
royalty  in  close  proximity.  I  have  never  been,  though 
all  my  German  friends  have  been  dinning  it  into  my 
ears  for  the  last  four  years  that  I  ought  to  go  and  see 
it,  for  the  decorations  are  magnificent.  This  year  there 
is  to  be  but  one,  as  the  Emperor  is  not  very  well,  and 
I  expect  it  will  be  as  much  as  one's  life  is  worth  to  get 
in  and  get  out  again,  such  is  the  rush ! 

The  German  officers  waltz  perfectly,  and  with  great 
spirit  and  elegance.  Dancing  is  a  part  of  their  mili- 
tary training  and  they  are  obliged  to  learn  it.  But 
they  are  not  very  comfortable  partners,  for  one  rubs 
one's  face  against  their  epaulets  unless  they  are  just 
the  right  height,  and'you've  no  rest  for  your  left  hand. 
They  take  only  two  turns  round  the  room  and  then 
stop  a  moment  or  two  to  fan  you  and  rest — then  they 
take  two  more.  The  consequence  is,  one  never  gets 
fairly  going  before  one  has  to  stop.  At  first  I  used  to 
think  the  effect  of  so  many  people  whirling  round  in 
the  same  direction  dizzying  and  monotonous.  But 
when  I  became  accustomed  to  it,  the  continual  revers- 
20 


306  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

ing  of  the  Americans  who  come  to  Berlin  struck  me 
as  angular,  in  contrast  to  the  graceful  German  cir- 
cling. It  is  not  "  the  thing  "  here  for  the  girls  to  look 
flushed  and  disordered — skirts  torn,  and  hair  out  of 
crimp — as  our  belles  do  at  the  end  of  an  evening. 
They  retire  from  the  ball-room  with  their  dresses  in 
faultless  condition,  so  that  going  to  parties  in  Germany 
must  cost  the  pater  familias  considerably  less  than 
with  us !  The  floor  is  never  so  crowded  with  dancers 
at  one  time,  and  as  they  are  going  in  the  same  direction, 
they  don't  run  into  each  other  as  our  couples  do. 
On  the  other  hand,  they  don't  have  such  a  "good 
time "  out  of  it  as  do  our  girls,  with  their  long  five 
and  ten  minute  turns  to  those  delicious  waltzes! 
Strange,  that  though  Germany  is  the  native  home  of 
the  waltz,  and  the  Vienna  waltzes  surpass  all  others,  the 
Schottisch  or  Ehinelaender  should  be  their  favourite 
dance.    They  dance  it  very  gracefully  and  rythmically. 


Berlin,  Ma/rch  1, 1874. 
I  went  the  other  evening  to  the  Opera  ball  I  wrote 
you  of  in  my  last.  The  whole  opera  house,  stage  and 
all,  was  floored  over,  and  magnificently  decorated  with 
evergreens,  mirrors,  fountains,  and  flowers.  The 
tickets  are  sold  for  some  charitable  purpose.  Only 
nice  people  can  get  in,  because  the  whole  thing  is 
systematically  arranged,  and  nobody  can  give  their 
tickets  to  anybody  else.  I  got  mine  through  Mr.  Ban- 
croft, and  I  went  with  two  other  ladies  and  a  gentle- 
man. 


A  COURT  BALL.  307 


We  went  very  early,  so  as  to  get  a  box  to  sit  in,  and 
never  shall  I  forget  the  first  effect  of  the  ball-room  ! 
That  immense  polished  floor  stretching  out  like  one 
vast  mirror  or  sheet  of  ice,  the  fountains  flashing  at 
the  sides,  the  walls  wreathed  with  green,  a  big  orchestra 
sitting  in  the  balcony  at  each  end,  and  about  a  hun- 
dred pairs  of  magnificently  dressed  ladies  and  gentle- 
men descending  the  stairs  into  the  rooms  and  prom- 
enading about.  Light,  diamonds,  colour,  everywhere. 
Oh,  it  was  perfectly  fairy -like  !  The  floor  was  built 
over  the  tops  of  the  chairs  in  the  parquette,  and  the 
entrance  was  through  the  royal  box,  which  is  just 
in  the  centre  of  the  opera  house,  facing  the  stage. 
This  box  is  like  a  large  recess,  of  course,  and  not  like 
the  ordinary  boxes.  There  was  an  entrance  on  each 
side,  coming  in  from  the  corridor,  and  a  flight  of  broad 
steps,  carpeted,  had  been  improvised,  which  led  from 
it  down  to  the  floor.  It  looked  perfectly  dazzling  to 
see  the  pairs  come  in  from  both  sides  at  once  and  de- 
scend the  steps,  and  the  ladies'  dresses  were  displayed 
to  perfection.  Such  toilets  I  never  saw.  The  women 
were  covered  with  lace,  feathers,  and  diamonds.  The 
simpler  dresses  were  of  tarletane  (mine  included!) 
but  as  they  were  quite  fresh  they  gave  a  very  dressy 
air.  We  had  a  splendid  box,  first  rank,  and  the  second 
from  the  proscenium  boxes  on  the  left,  in  which  sat 
the  royal  family.  In  the  box  between  us  and  the  latter 
sat  the  wife  of  the  French  ambassador  with  the  Coun- 
tess von  Seidlewitz  and  her  sister,  and  behind  them  was 
a  formidable  array  of  magnificent-looking  officers  in 
full  uniform,  their  breasts  flashing  with  stars  and 
orders  and  silver  chains. 


308  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

The  Countess  von  Seidlewitz  is  a  famous  court  beauty 
and  is  lady  of  honour  to  the  Princess  Carl  (sister  of 
the  Empress).  She  sat  just  next  to  me,  as  only  the 
partition  of  the  box  was  between  us,  and  she  was  the 
most  beautiful  woman  I  saw — perfectly  imperial,  in 
fact — white  and  magniticent  as  a  lily.  Her  features 
were  perfectly  regular,  and  she  had  a  proudly-cut 
mouth,  and  such  dazzling  little  teeth !  Then,  her 
arms,  neck,  and  shape  were  exquisite.  She  wore  the 
severest  kind  of  dress,  and  one  that  only  such  beauty 
could  have  borne.  It  was  a  white  silk,  with  an  im- 
mense train,  of  course,  and  without  overskirt — simply 
caught  up  in  a  great  puff  behind.  The  waist  was 
made  with  a  small  basque,  but  very  low,  and  with  very 
short  sleeves.  Round  the  neck  was  a  white  bugle 
fringe,  and  there  were  two  or  three  rows  of  this  fringe 
in  front,  graduating  to  the  waist,  smaller  and  smaller, 
and  going  round  the  basque.  All  the  front  breadth 
of  the  skirt  was  laid  in  folds  of  satin,  in  groups  of 
three,  and  on  the  edge  of  every  third  row  was  the 
fringe  again,  graduating  wider  and  wider  toward  the 
bottom.  In  her  hair  she  wore  a  wreath  of  white  ver- 
benas or  (snow-balls)  and  green  leaves.  Her  sole  orna- 
ment was  a  magnificent  diamond  locket  and  ear-rings  of 
some  curious  design,  the  locket  depending  from  a  very 
tine  gold  chain,  which  challenged  all  observers  to  no- 
tice the  f  aultlessness  of  her  neck.  One  sly  bit  of  co- 
quetry was  visible  in  two  natural  flowers,  lilies-of-the- 
valley,  with  their  leaves,  which  she  had  stuck  in  her 
corsage  so  that  they  should  rest  against  her  neck  and 
show  that  they  were  not  whiter  than  her  skin. — You 


THE  EMPRESS.  309 


see  there  were  no  folds  anywhere,  as  there  was  no  over- 
skirt,  but  the  whole  dress  hung  in  long  lines  and 
showed  the  contour  of  the  figure.  Nothing  but  these 
fringes  (which  gleamed  and  waved  with  every  motion) 
relieved  it — not  even  a  bit  of  black  velvet  anywhere, 
for  the  lace  round  the  neck  was  drawn  through  with 
a  white  silk  thread.  There  was  another  lady  in  the 
same  box  whose  dress  was  very  beautiful,  too,  though 
she  herself  was  not.  It  was  a  green  silk  with  green 
tulle  overdress  puifed,  and  with  ears  of  silver  wheat 
scattered  over  it.  The  tunic  was  of  silver  crape,  the 
bottom  cut  in  scallops  and  trimmed  with  silver  wheat. 
A  wisp  of  wheat  was  knotted  round  her  neck  for  a 
necklace,  and  a  perfect  sheaf  of  it  in  her  hair.  It  was 
an  exquisite  dress. 

At  ten  o'clock  everybody  had  arrived — about  two 
thousand  people.  The  orchestra  struck  up  the  Polo- 
naise, and  the  court  descended  from  the  box  to  make 
the  tour  of  the  floor  {i.  e.,  only  the  members  of  the 
royal  family  with  their  ladies  of  honour).  The  Em- 
peror was  not  very  well,  so  he  remained  in  his  box, 
but  the  Empress  led  off  with  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh, 
who  happened  to  be  here.  She  was  dressed  in  laven- 
der satin,  covered  with  the  most  superb  white  lace. 
Her  hair  was  done  in  braids  on  the  top  of  her  head, 
very  high,  and  upon  it  was  fastened  a  double  coronet 
of  diamonds,  stuck  on  in  stars,  etc.,  which  flashed  like 
so  many  small  suns.  Round  her  neck  depended  from 
a  black  velvet  band,  strings  of  diamonds  of  great  size 
and  magnificence.  It  really  almost  made  you  start 
when  your  eye  caught  them  unexpectedly !     The  Em- 


310  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

press  is  a  very  elegant-looking  woman,  and  is  every 
inch  a  queen.  She  moved  with  stately  step,  bowing 
and  bowing  graciously  from  side  to  side  to  the  crowd 
which  parted  and  bent  before  her,  and  was  followed 
by  the  Crown  Prince  and  Princess,  the  Princess  Carl, 
the  Princess  Friedrich  Carl  (a  beauty)  and  her  daugh- 
ters, and  I  don't  know  who  all,  with  their  ladies  of 
honour.  When  the  Countess  von  Seidlewitz  came 
along,  with  her  fringes  waving  and  gleaming  in  front 
of  her,  she  shone  out  from  all  the  rest,  and,  in  fact, 
from  the  whole  two  thousand  guests,  like  the  planet 
Venus  among  the  other  stars. — Stunning ! 

The  orchestra  banged  away  its  loudest,  and  it  was 
quite  exciting.  The  three  balconies  were  crowded  with 
people,  and  all  the  boxes.  The  box  of  the  diplomatic 
corps  was  just  opposite  us,  and  our  gay  little  Mrs.  F. 
sat  in  it  dressed  in  white  satin.  Some  of  my  friends 
came  and  stood  under  my  box  and  tried  to  get  me  to 
come  down,  but  I  would  not,  for  I  knew  I  should  lose 
my  place  if  I  did,  and,  indeed,  I  would  not  want  to 
dance  there  unless  my  dress  were  something  superlative. 
You  see,  all  the  swells  sat  in  their  boxes  and  gazed 
right  down  on  the  dancers,  who  had  a  circular  place 
roped  off  for  them.  De  Eilvas,  the  Spanish  minister, 
looked  so  fine,  however,  with  his  broad  blue  ribbon 
across  his  breast  and  his  gold  cross  depending  from 
his  neck,  that  I  should  have  liked  very  well  to  have 
made  the  tour  of  the  room  with  him. 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

A  Set  of  Beethoven  Variations.    Fannie  Warburg.    Deppe'i 

Inventions.    His  Room.    His  Afternoon 

Coffee.    Pyrmont. 

Berlin,  April  30,  1874. 
I  wish  you  were  here  now  so  that  I  could  play  you 
a  set  of  little  variations  by  Beethoven  called,  "I've 
only  got  a  little  hut."  They  are  bewitching,  and  I 
think  I  can  now  play  them  so  as  to  express  (as  Deppe 
says)  "  that  he  had  indeed  nothing  but  his  little  hut,  but 
was  quite  happy  in  it."  In  the  last  variation  he  dances 
a  waltz  in  his  little  hut !  I  have  learned  a  great  deal 
from  these  tiny  variations,  taught  in  Deppe's  inimita- 
ble fashion.  When  I  first  took  them  to  him  I  began 
playing  the  second  of  the  variations — which  is  rather 
plaintive  and  seems  to  indicate  that  the  proprietor  of 
the  little  hut  had  a  misgiving  that  there  might  be  a 
better  abode  somewhere  on  the  earth — with  a  great 
deal  of  "  expression,"  as  I  thought.  I  soon  found  out 
I  was  overdoing  it,  however,  and  that  it  is  not  always 
so  easy  to  define  "where  good  expression  stops  and  bad 
style  begins.  "  Why  do  you  make  those  notes  stick  out 
so  ?"  asked  Deppe,  as  I  was  giving  vent  to  my  "  soul- 
longings,"  (as  P.  says).  "  Learn  to  paint  in  grossen 
Flaechen  (great  surfaces)."  He  made  me  play  it 
again  perfectly  legato,  and  with  no  one  note  "  sticking 
out ''  more  than  another.    I  saw  at  once  that  he  was 

(311) 


312  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

right  about  it,  and  that  the  effect  was  much  better, 
while  it  took  nothing  from  the  real  sentiment  of  the 
piece.  It  was  one  of  those  cases  where  a  simple  state- 
ment was  all  that  was  necessary.  Anything  more  de- 
tracted from  rather  than  added  to  it. 

I  have  at  last  heard  Fannie  Warburg  in  a  Mozart 
concerto,  for  she  has  got  back  from  England.  How 
she  did  play  it !  To  say  that  the  passages  "  pearled," 
would  be  saying  nothing  at  all.  Why,  the  piano  just 
warbled  them  out  like  a  nightingale !  The  last 
movement  had  the  infectious  gayety  that  Mozart's 
things  often  have,  with  a  magnificent  cadenza  by  him- 
self. She  rendered  it  so  perfectly,  and  with  such 
naive  light-heartedness,  that  none  of  us  could  resist 
it,  and  we  all  finally  burst  into  a  laugh  !  There  was  a 
little  orchestra  accompanying,  which  Deppe  had  got 
together  and  was  directing.  When  she  got  to  the 
cadenza,  he  laid  down  his  baton,  and  retired  to  lean 
against  the  door  and  enjoy  it.  She  did  it  in  the  most 
masterly  manner,  and  0,  it  was5o  difficult !  I  thought 
of  the  Boston  critic,  who  considered  Mozart's  compo- 
sitions "child's  play."  They  are  child's  play — that  is, 
they  are  nothing  at  all  if  they  are  not  faultlessly 
played,  and  every  fault  shows,  which  is  the  reason  so 
few  attempt  them.  Your  hand  must  be  "  in  order," 
as  Deppe  says,  to  do  it. 

Fannie  Warburg  is  a  sweet  little  eighteen-year-old 
maiden.  A  shy  little  bud  of  a  girl  without  any  vanity  or 
self-consciousness.  She  has  a  lovely  hand  for  the 
piano,  and  the  Avay  she  uses  it  is  perfectly  exquisite. 
It  is  small  and  plump,  but  strong,  with  firm  little  fin- 


FANNIE  WARBURG'S  HAND.  313 

gers.  Every  muscle  is  developed,  and  indeed  it  could' 
not  be  otherwise,  after  such  a  six  years'  training.  One 
of  Deppe's  rules  is  that  when  you  raise  the  finger  the 
knuckle  must  not  stick  out.  The  finger  must  "sit 
firm  (festsitzeri)  in  the  joint."  Fannie  Warburg's 
fingers  "sitzen"  so  "/est"  that  when  she  plays  she 
positively  has  a  little  row  of  dimples  where  her  knuckles 
ought  to  be.  It  looks  too  pretty  for  anything — just 
like  a  baby's  hand.  She  does  not  seem  to  have  the 
slightest  ambition,  however,  and  I  doubt  whether  she 
will  ever  do  anything  with  her  music  after  she  leaves 
Deppe.  Her  mother  was  from  Hamburg,  and  had 
taken  lessons  of  Deppe  there  when  they  were  botli 
quite  young.  She  thought  him  such  a  remarkable 
teacher  that  she  declared  her  daughter  should  have  no 
other  master.  So  when  Fannie  was  twelve  years 
old  she  brought  her  to  him,  and  he  has  been  giving 
her  lessons  ever  since — something  like  Samuel's  mother 
bringing  him  to  the  Temple,  wasn't  it? — and  indeed 
when  I  go  into  Deppe's  shabby  little  room  I  always 
feel  as  if  I  were  in  a  little  Temple  of  Music !  I  like 
to  see  the  furniture  all  bestrewn  with  it,  and  Deppe 
himself  seated  at  his  table  surrounded  with  piles  of 
manuscript,  pen  in  hand,  going  over  and  arranging 
them,  bringing  order  out  of  chaos.  Other  orchestra 
leaders  are  always  Avriting  and  begging  him  to  lend 
them  his  copies  of  Oratorios,  etc. 

Deppe  has  all  sortb  of  practical  little  ideas  peculiar  to 
himself.  For  instance,  he  has  invented  a  candlestick  to 
stand  on  a  grand  piano.  In  shape  it  is  curved,  like 
those  things  for  candles  attached  to  upright  pianos,  but 


314  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

» 

with  a  weighted  foot  to  hold  it  firm.  It  is  a  capital 
invention,  for  you  put  one  each  side  of  the  music-rack, 
and  then  you  can  turn  it  so  as  to  throw  the  light  on  your 
music,  just  as  you  can  turn  those  on  the  upright  pianos. 
It  is  on  the  same  principle,  only  with  the  addition  of  the 
foot.  It  is  much  more  convenient  than  a  lamp,  because 
it  doesn't  rattle,  and  you  can  throw  the  light  on  the 
page  so  much  better. — Then  he  always  insists  on  our 
having  our  pieces  bound  separately,  in  a  cover  of  stout 
blue  paper,  such  as  copy  books  are  bound  in.  He  entirely 
disapproves  of  binding  music  in  books.  "Who  will  lug 
a  great  heavy  book  along?"  he  will  ask,  "and  besides, 
they  don't  lie  open  well." 

The  other  day  Deppe  told  me  he  wanted  me  to  come 
and  hear  Fraulein  Steiniger  take  her  lesson,  as  she  had 
some  interesting  pieces  to  play.  I  found  her  already 
there  when  I  arrived.  Deppe  was  in  an  uncommonly 
good  humour,  and  kept  making  little  Jokes.  She  played 
a  string  of  ihings,  and  finally  ended  off  with  Liszt's 
arrangement  of  the  Spinning  Song  from  Wagner's  Fly- 
ing Dutchman.  Deppe  is  dreadfully  fussy  about  this 
piece,  and  made  some  such  subtle  and  telling  points 
regarding  the  conception  of  the  composition,  that  they 
were  worthy  of  Liszt  himself.  I  mean  to  learn  it,  and 
when  I  come  home  I  will  play  it  to  you  as  Deppe  taught 
it  to  Steiniger,  and  you  will  see  how  fascinating  it  is.  I 
know  you'll  be  carried  away  with  it. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  lesson  it  was  growing  rather  late, 
and  time  also  for  Deppe's  coffee,  which  beverage  you  know 
the  Germans  always  drink  late  in  the  afternoon,  accom- 
panied with  cakes.    He  had  just  laid  down  his  violin,  as 


DEPPE  AT  HOME.  315 

he  and  Fraulein  Steiniger  had  played  a  sonata  together, 
and  had  seated  hunself  at  the  piano  to  show  her  about 
some  passage  or  other.  Deeply  absorbed,  he  was  har- 
anguing her  as  hard  as  he  could,  when  the  maid  of  all 
work  suddenly  entered  with  the  coffee  on  a  tray,  and 
was  apparently  about  to  set  it  down  on  the  piano  in 
close  proximity  to  the  viohn.  ^^Herr  Qott,  nicht  auf  die 
Violin!  (Good  gracious,  not  on  the  viohn) !"  exclaimed 
Doppe,  springing  frantically  up  and  rescuing  the  beloved 
instrument.  "Where  then?"  said  the  girl.  "Oh,  any- 
where, only  not  on  the  violin."  She  set  it  down  on  a 
chair  and  vanished.  There  were  only  three  chairs  in  the 
room,  and  the  sofa  was  covered  with  music.  Fraulein 
Stemiger  occupied  one  chair,  I  the  second,  and  the  coffee 
the  third.  Deppe  glanced  around  in  momentary  bewild- 
erment, and  then  sat  himself  plump  down  on  the  floor, 
took  his  coffee,  stretched  out  his  legs,  and  began  stirring 
it  imperturbably.  "But  Herr  Deppe!"  remonstrated 
Steiniger.  "Well,"  said  he,  with  his  light-hearted  laugh, 
"what  else  can  I  do  when  I  have  no  chair?"  There  was 
no  carpet  on  the  floor,  which  was  an  ordinary  painted 
one,  and  he  looked  funny  enough,  sitting  there,  but  he 
enjoyed  his  coffee  just  as  well ! — After  he  had  finished 
drinking  it,  the  shades  of  night  were  falhng,  and  it 
occurred  to  him  it  would  be  well  to  illuminate  his 
apartment.  He  is  the  happy  possessor  of  five  minute 
lamps  and  candlesticks,  no  two  of  which  are  the  same 
height.  The  lamps  are  two  in  number,  and  are  about 
as  big  as  the  smallest  sized  fluid  lamp  that  we  used  in  old 
times  to  go  to  bed  by.  The  three  candlesticks  are  of 
china^   and  adorned    with  designs   in  decalcomania — 


316  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

probably  the  handiwork  of  grateful  pupils,  for  in  Germany 
there  is  no  present  like  a  ^^  Hand- Arbeit  (something 
done  by  the  hand  of  the  giver)."  It  is  the  correct  thing 
to  give  a  gentleman.  When  Fr^ulein  Steiniger  and  I 
only  are  present,  Deppe  usually  considers  the  two  lamps 
sufficient.  But  if  others  are  there  and  he  is  going  to 
have  some  music  in  the  evening,  he  will  produce  the 
three  minute  candlesticks,  with  an  end  of  candle  in  each, 
light  them,  and  dispose  them  in  various  parts  of  the 
room.  When,  however,  as  on  great  occasions,  the  five 
lamps  and  candlesticks  are  supplemented  by  two  more 
candles  on  the  piano  In  the  curved  candlesticks  of 
Deppe's  own  invention,  the  blaze  of  light  is  something 
tremendous  to  our  unaccustomed  eyes !  Nothing  short 
of  the  Tuileries  or  the  "Weisser  Saal "  at  the  palace  here 
could  equal  it ! 


Berlin,  May  31,  1874. 
This  season  with  Deppe  has  been  of  such  immense 
importance  to  me,  that  I  don't  know  what  sum  of  money 
I  would  take  in  exchange  for  it.  By  practicing  in  his 
method  the  tone  has  an  entirely  different  sound,  being 
round,  soft  and  yet  penetrating,  while  the  execution  of 
passages  is  infinitely  facilitated  and  perfected.  In  fact, 
it  seems  to  me  that  in  time  one  could  attain  anything  by 
it,  but  time  it  will  have.  One  has  to  study  for  months 
very  slowly  and  with  very  simple  things,  to  get  into  the 
way  of  playing  so,  and  to  be  able  to  think  about  each 
finger  as  you  use  it — to  "/eeZ  the  note  and  make  it  con- 
scious."   Deppe  won't  let  me  finish  anything  at  present, 


SHERWOOD.  317 


so  I  can't  tell  how  far  along  I  am  myself.  His  principle 
is,  never  to  learn  a  piece  completely  the  first  time  you 
attack  it,  but  to  master  it  three-quarters,  and  then  let  it 
lie  as  you  would  fruit  that  you  have  put  on  a  shelf  to 
ripen ; — afterward,  take  it  up  again  and  finish  it.  The 
principle  may  be  a  good  one,  but  it  prevents  my  ever 
havmg  anything  to  play  for  people,and  consequently  I  have 
ceased  playing  in  company  entirely.  In  fact,  I  find  it  impos- 
sible, and  I  don't  see  how  Sherwood  manages  it.  He  has  a 
whole  repertoire,  and  sits  down  and  plays  piece  after 
piece  deliciously.  But  then  he  is  a  perfect  genius,  and 
will  make  a  sensation  when  he  comes  out.  He  has  that 
natural  repose  and  imperturbability  that  are  everything 
to  an  artist,  but  which,  unfortunately,  so  few  of  us  pos- 
sess. His  compositions,  too,  are  exquisite,  and  so  poetical ! 
Mrs.  Wrisley,*  of  Boston,  and  FrSulein  Estleben,  of 
Sweden,  who  left  Kullak  when  I  did,  are  also  gifted 
creatures,  whereas  I  think  I  am  only  a  steady  old  poke- 
along,  who  worCt  give  up  !  Sherwood,  however,  is  head 
and  shoulders  above  all  of  us. 

[The  following  extract,  taken  from  the  report  in  the 
Musical  Beview  of  Mr.  Sherwood's  address  before  the 
Music  Teachers'  National  Association  in  Buffalo,  in  June, 
1880,  would  seem  to  show  that  whether  this  distinguished 
young  virtuoso,  now  by  far  the  leading  American  con- 
cert-pianist, gained  his  ideas  on  the  study  of  touch  and 
tone  from  Herr  Deppe  or  not,  he  certainly  endorses 
them  in  both  his  playing  and  his  teaching : — "  It  makes 
a  great  deal  of  difference  whether  a  piano  be  struck  with 
a  stick,  with  mechanical  fingers,  or  with  fingers  that  are 
full  of  life  and  magnetism.  I  have  examined  Eubinstein's 

*  Now  Mrs.  SherwooCU 


318  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

hand  and  arm,  and  found  that  they  are  not  only  full  of 
life  and  magnetism,  but  that  they  are  extremely  elastic, 
and  the  fingers  are  so  soft  that  the  bones  are  scarcely  felt. 
Can  practice  produce  these  qualities?  I  believe  so,  and  I 
make  it  a  point  both  with  my  pupils  and  myself  to  prac- 
tice slow  motions.  It  is  much  easier  to  strike  quickly 
than  slowly,  but  practice  in  the  slow  movement  will 
develop  both  muscular  and  nervous  power.  And  the 
tone  obtained  by  this  motion  is  much  better  than  that 
obtained  by  striking.  The  mechanical  practice  in  vogue 
at  Leipsic  and  other  European  conservatories  often  fails 
because  the  subject  of  aesthetics  and  tone  beauties  are 
neglected."    See  pp.  288,  302-3,  334.]— Ed. 

My  lessons  with  Deppe  are  a  genuine  musical  excite- 
ment to  me,  always.  In  every  one  is  something  so 
new  and  unexpected — something  that  I  never  dreamed 
of  before — that  I  am  lost  in  astonishment  and  admir- 
ation. The  weeks  fly  by  like  days  before  I  know  it. 
Deppe  gives  me  the  most  beautiful  music,  and  never 
wastes  time  over  things  which  will  be  of  no  use  to  me 
afterward.  Every  piece  has  an  aim,  and  is  lovely, 
also,  to  play  to  people.  Now,  in  Tausig's  and  Kul- 
lak's  conservatories  I  wasted  quantities  of  time  over 
things  which  are  beautiful  enough,  and  do  to  play  to 
one's  self,  but  which  are  not  in  the  least  effective  to 
play  to  other  people  either  in  the  parlour  or  in  the  con- 
cert-room— as  Bach's  Toccata  in  0,  for  example.  Such 
things  take  a  good  while  to  learn,  and  are  of  no  prac- 
tical advantage  afterward.  But  Deppe  has  an  organ- 
ized plan  in  everything  he  does. 

In  my  study  with  Kullak  when  I  had  any  special 


DEPPE  A  "  MUSICAL  SAVANT."  319 

difficulties,  he  only  said,  "  Practice  always,  FrSulein. 
Time  will  do  it  for  you  some  day.  Hold  your  hand 
any  way  that  is  easiest  for  you.  You  can  do  it  in  this 
way — or  in  this  way" — showing  me  different  positions 
of  the  hand  in  playing  the  troublesome  passage — "or 
you  can  play  it  with  the  back  of  the  hand  if  that  will 
help  you  any !"  But  Deppe,  instead  of  saying,  "  Oh, 
you'll  get  this  after  years  of  practice,"  shows  me  how  to 
conquer  the  difficulty  now.  He  takes  apiece,  and  while 
he  plays  it  with  the  most  wonderful  ^neness  of  concep- 
tion, he  cold-bloodedly  dissects  the  mechanical  elements 
of  it,  separates  them,  and  tells  you  how  to  use  your  hand 
so  as  to  grasp  them  one  after  the  other.  In  short,  he 
makes  the  technique  and  the  conception  identical,  as 
of  course  they  ought  to  be,  but  I  never  had  any  other 
master  who  trained  his  pupils  to  attempt  it. 

Deppe  also  hears  me  play,  I  think,  in  the  true  way, 
and  as  Liszt  used  to  do  :  that  is,  he  never  interrupts  me 
in  a  piece,  but  lets  me  go  through  it  from  beginning  to 
end,  and  then  he  picks  out  the  places  he  has 
noted,  and  corrects  or  suggests.  These  suggestions 
are  always  something  which  are  not  simply  for  that 
piece  alone,  but  which  add  to  your  whole  artistic  expe- 
rience— a  principle,  so  to  speak.  So,  without  meaning 
any  disparagement  zo  the  splendid  masters  to  whom  I 
owe  all  my  previous  musical  culture,  I  cannot  help 
feeling  that  I  have  at  last  got  into  the  hands  not  of 
a  mere  piano  virtuoso,  however  great,  but,  rather, 
of  a  profound  musical  savant — a  man  who  has  been  a 
violinist,  as  well  as  a  director,  and  who,  without  being  a 
player  himself,  has  made  such  a  study  of  the  piano,  that 


320  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

probably  all  pianists  except  Liszt  might  learn  some- 
thing from  him.  You  may  all  think  me  "enthusiastic," 
or  even  wild,  as  much  as  you  like ;  but  whether  or  not  I 
ever  conquer  my  own  block  of  a  hand — which  has  every 
defect  a  hand  can  have ! — -when  I  come  home  and 
begin  teaching  you  all  on  Deppe's  method,  you'll 
succumb  to  the  genius  and  beauty  of  it  just  as  com- 
pletely as  I  have.      You  will  then  all  admit  I  was 

RIGHT ! 

July  22. — I  have  finally  made  up  my  mind  to  go  to 
Pyrmont  when  Deppe  does,  and  spend  several  weeks, 
keeping  right  on  with  my  lessons,  and  perhaps,  giving  a 
little  concert  there.  I  have  always  had  a  curiosity  to 
visit  one  of  the  German  watering  places,  as  Fm  told  they 
are  extremely  pleasant. 


Pyrmont,  August  1,  1874. 
Here  I  am  in  Pyrmont,  and  there's  no  knowing  where  I 
shall  turn  up  next !  FrSulein  Steiniger  got  here  before 
me,  but  Deppe  has  not  yet  arrived  from  Brussels,  whither 
he  has  gone  to  be  present  at  the  yearly  exhibition  of  the 
Conservatoire  there.  He  has  been  appointed  one  of  the 
judges  on  piano-playing.  Pyrmont  is  a  lovely  little 
place.  It  is  in  a  valley  surrounded  by  hills,  heavily 
wooded,  and  has  a  beautiful  park,  as  all  German  towns 
have,  no  matter  how  small.  The  avenues  of  trees  surpass 
anything  I  ever  saw.  The  soil  has  something  peculiar  about 
it,  and  is  particularly  adapted  to  trees.  They  grow  to 
an  immense  height,  and  their  stems  look  so  strong,  and 
their  foliage  is  so  tremendously  luxuriant,  that  it  seems 
as  if  they  were  ready  to  burst  for  very  life ! 


PYRMONT.  321 


Fraulein  Steiniger  went  with  me  to  look  up  some 
rooms.  Every  family  in  Pyrmont  takes  lodgers,  so 
that  it  is  not  difficult  to  find  good  accommodations. 
The  women  are  renowned  for  being  good  housekeepers 
and  their  rooms  are  charmingly  fitted  up,  but  the  prices 
are  very  high,  as  they  live  the  whole  year  on  what  they 
make  in  summer.  People  come  here  to  drink  the  waters 
of  the  springs,  and  to  take  the  baths,  which  are  said  to 
be  very  invigorating.  My  rooms  are  near  the  piincipal 
'^AlUe^^  or  Avenue,  leading  from  the  Springs.  About 
half  way  down  is  a  platform  where  the  orchestra  sit 
and  play  three  times  a  day — at  seven  in  the  morning 
(which  is  the  hour  before  breakfast,  when  it  is  the  thing 
to  take  a  glass  or  two  of  the  water,  and  promenade  a 
little),  at  four  in  the  afternoon,  when  everybody  takes 
their  coffee  in  the  open  air,  and  at  seven  in  the  evening. 
As  I  don't  drink  the  waters  I  do  not  rise  early,  and  am 
usually  awakened  by  the  strains  of  the  orchestra.  There 
is  a  little  piazza  outside  my  window  where  I  take  my 
breakfast  and  supper.  For  dinner  I  go  to  "table-d'hote  " 
at  a  hotel  near. — It  is  a  great  relief  to  get  out  of 
Berlin  and  see  something  green  once  more.  I  find  the 
weather  very  cool,  however,  and  one  needs  warm  clothing 
here. 

There  are  the  loveliest  walks  all  about  Pyrmont  that 
you  can  imagine,  and  beautiful  wood-paths  are  cut  along 
the  sides  of  the  hills.  My  favourite  one  is  round  the  cone 
of  a  small  hill  to  the  right  of  the  town.  The  path  com- 
pletely girdles  it,  and  you  can  start  and  walk  round  the 
hill,  returning  to  the  point  you  set  out  from.  It  is  like 
21 


322  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

a  leafy  gallery,  and  before  and  behind  you  is  always  this 
curving  vista.  Whenever  I  take  the  walk  it  reminds  me 
of~ 

*'  Curved  is  the  line  of  beauty, 

Straight  is  the  line  of  duty ; 

Follow  the  last  and  thou  shalt  see 

The  other  ever  following  thee." 

It  is  the  first  time  I  ever  succeeded  in  combining  the 
curved  and  the  straight  line  at  the  same  time — because, 
of  course,  it  is  my  duty  to  take  exercise  ! 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

The  Brussels  Conservatoire.    Steiniger.    Excursion  to  Klein- 
berg.    Giving  a  Concert.    Fraulein  Timm. 

Ptrmont,  August  15, 1874. 
Deppe  has  got  back  from  Brussels,  and,  as  you  may 
imagine,  he  had  much  to  tell  about  his  flight  into  the 
■vforld,  particularly  as  he  had  also  been  to  London. 
He  had  a  delightful  time  with  the  professors  of  the 
Brussels  Conservatoire,  who  were  all  extremely  polite 
to  'him,  and  he  heard  some  talented  young  pupils. 
There  was  one  girl  about  seventeen,  whom  he  said 
he  would  give  a  good  deal  to  have  as  his  pupil, 
so  gifted  is  she,  though  her  playing  did  not  suit  him 
in  many  respects.  He  said  he  could  have  made  some 
severe  criticisms,  but  he  refrained — partly  because  he 
felt  the  uselessness  of  it,  partly  because  he  says  "it  is 
extraordinary  how  amiable  one  gets  when  young  ladies 
are  in  question  !"  He  was  very  enthusiastic  over  the 
violin  classes.  "What  a  bow  the  youngsters  do  draw  !" 
he  exclaimed.  Dupont,  the  great  piano  teacher  inBrus- 
sels,  must  be  a  man  of  considerable  "esprit"  judging 
from  the  two  of  his  compositions  that  I  am  familiar 
with — ^the  "Toccata  "  and  the  "Staccato."  I  used  to  hear 
a  good  deal  about  him  from  his  pupil  Gurickx,  whom 
I  met  in  Weimar.  Certainly  Gurickx  played  magnifi- 
cently, and  with  a  brio  I  have  rarely  heard  equalled. 
He  is  like  an  electric  battery.      Quite  another  school, 

(323) 


324  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

however,  from  Deppe's — the  severe,  the  chaste  and  the 
classic !  Extreme  purity  of  style  is  Deppe's  charac- 
teristic, and  not  the  passionate  or  the  emotional.  For 
instance,  he  has  scarcely  given  me  any  Chopin,  but 
keeps  me  among  the  classics,  as  he  says  on  that  side 
my  musical  culture  has  been  deficient.  He  says  that 
Chopin  has  been  "  so  played  to  death  that  he  ought  to 
be  put  aside  for  twenty  years  !" — But  if  Chopin  were 
really  sympathetic  to  him  he  could  never  say  that!  The 
truth  is,  the  modern  "  problem atische  Natur"  has  no 
charms  for  a  transparent  and  simple  temperament  like 
his. 

Steiniger  has  been  playing  most  beautifully  lately. 
She  has  given  two  concerts  of  her  own  here,  and  has 
played  at  another.  Then  she  rehearsed  with  orchestra 
Mozart's  B  flat  major  concerto — the  most  difficult 
concerto  in  the  world,  and  oh,  so  exquisite  !  Though 
I  had  long  wished  to  do  so,  I  never  had  heard  it 
before,  and  as  I  listened  I  felt  as  if  I  never  could  leave 
Deppe  until  I  could  play  that!  I  wish  you  could  have 
heard  it.  It  is  sown  with  difficulties — enough  to  make 
your  hair  stand  on  end  I  Steiniger  played  it  with  an 
ease  and  perfection  truly  astonishing.  The  notes 
seemed  fairly  to  run  out  of  her  fingers  for  fun.  The  last 
movement  was  Mozart  all  over,  just  as  merry  as  a 
cricket ! — I  doubt  whether  anybody  can  play  this  con- 
certo adequately  who  has  not  studied  with  Deppe. 
The  beauty  of  his  method  is  that  the  greatest  diffi- 
culties become  play  to  you. 

I  love  to  see  Deppe  direct  the  orchestra  when  Stein- 
iger plays  a  concerto  of  Mozart.      His  clear  blue  eyes 


EXCURSION  TO  KLEINBERO.  325 

dance  in  his  head  and  look  so  sunny,  and  he  stands  so 
light  on  his  feet  that  it  seems  as  if  he  would  dance  off 
himself  on  the  tips  of  his  toes,  with  his  baton  in  his 
hand !  He  is  the  incarnation  of  Mozart,  just  as  Liszt 
and  Joachim  are  of  Beethoven,  and  Tausig  was  of 
Chopin.  He  has  a  marvellously  delicate  musical  organ- 
ization, and  an  instinct  how  things  ought  to  be  played 
which  amounts  to  second  sight.  Fraulein  Steiniger 
said  to  him  one  day :  "Herr  Deppe,  I  don't  know  why 
it  is,  but  I  can't  make  the  opening  bars  of  this  piece 
sound  right.  It  doesn't  produce  the  impression  it 
ought."  "  I  know  why,"  said  Deppe.  "  It  is  because 
you  don't  strike  the  chord  of  G  minor  before  you  begin," 
— and  so  it  was.  When  she  struck  the  chord  of  G 
minor,  it  was  the  right  preparation,  and  brought  you 
immediately  into  the  mood  for  what  followed.  It 
fixed  the  key. 

Aside  from  music,  Deppe,  like  all  artists,  has  the 
most  childlike  nature,  and  I  think  Mozart  is  so 
peculiarly  sympathetic  to  him  because  he  has  such  a 
simple  and  sunny  temperament  himself.  We  made 
a  beautiful  excursion  the  other  day  in  carriages,  through 
the  hills,  to  a  little  village  far  distant,  where  we  drank 
coffee  in  the  open  air.  Deppe,  who  knows  every  foot 
of  the  ground  about  Pyrmont,  which  he  has  frequented 
from  his  youth  up,  kept  calling  our  attention  to  all 
the  points  of  the  scenery  over  and  over  again  with  the 
greatest  delight,  quite  forgetting  that  he  repeated  the 
same  thing  fifty  times.  "  That  little  village  over  there 
is  called  Kleinberg.  It  has  a  school  and  a  church,  and 
the  pastor's  name  is  Koehler,"  he  would  say  to  me 


326  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

first.  Then  he  would  repeat  it  to  every  one  in  our 
carriage.  Then  he  would  stand  up  and  call  it  over  to 
the  carriage  behind  us.  Then  when  he  had  got  out 
he  said  it  to  the  assembled  crowd,  and  as  I  walked  on 
in  advance  with  Fraulein  Estleben,  the  last  thing  I 
heard  floating  over  the  hill-top  was,  "The  pastor's 
name  is  Koehler," — so  I  knew  he  was  still  instructing 
some  one  in  the  fact.  "  I  wonder  how  often  Deppe 
has  repeated  that?"  I  said  to  Fraulein  Estleben.  "At 
least  fifty  times,"  said  she,  laughing.  "  I'm  going  back 
to  him  and  ask  him  once  more  what  the  name  of  the 
pastor  is."  So  I  went  back,  and  said,  "  By  the  way, 
Herr  Deppe,  what  did  you  say  the  name  of  the  pastor 
of  that  village  is?"  " Koehler^^  said  dear  old  Deppe, 
with  great  distinctness  and  with  such  simple  good  faith 
that  I  felt  reproached  at  having  quizzed  him,  though 
the  others  could  scarcely  keep  their  countenances,  as 
they  knew  what  I  was  after. 

I  have  been  preparing  for  some  time  to  give  a  concert 
of  Chamber  Music  in  the  salon  of  the  hotel  here,  and  ex- 
pect it  to  take  place  a  week  from  to-day.  My  head  feels 
quite  lame  from  so  much  practicing,  the  consequence,  I 
suppose,  of  so  much  listening.  I  am  to  play  a  Quin- 
tette, Op.  87,  in  E  major,  by  Hummel,  for  piano  and 
strings,  and  a  Beethoven  Sonata,  Op.  12,  in  E  flat,  for 
violin  and  piano,  and  the  other  instruments  will  play  a 
Quartette  by  Haydn  in  between.  It  is  a  beautiful  little 
programme,  I  think — every  piece  perfect  of  its  kind. 
If  I  succeed  in  this  concert  as  I  hope,  I  shall  probably 
listen  to  Deppe's  implorings  and  remain  under  his 
guidance  another  season.     Deppe  believes  that  one 


GIVING  A  CONCERT.  327 

mtcst  go  through  successive  steps  of  preparation  before 
one  is  fitted  to  attack  the  great  concert  works.  Fve 
found  out  (what  he  took  good  care  not  to  tell  me  in 
the  beginning!)  that  his  "course"  is  three  years!! 
and  you  can't  hurry  either  him  or  his  method.  Your 
fingers  have  got  to  grow  into  it. — I  do  not  at  all 
regret,  with  you,  not  having  hitherto  played  in  con- 
cert ;  on  the  contrary,  I  think  it  providential  that  I 
did  not.  You  see,  you  and  I  started  out  with  wholly 
impracticable  and  ridiculous  ideas.  We  thought  that 
things  could  be  done  quickly.  Well,  they  can't  be 
done  quickly  and  be  worth  anything.  One  must 
keep  an  end  in  view  for  years  and  gradually  work  up 
to  it.  The  length  of  time  spent  in  preparation  has  to 
be  the  same,  whether  you  begin  as  a  child  (which  is 
the  best,  and  indeed  the  only  proper  way),  or  whether 
you  begin  after  you  have  grown  up.  It  is  a  ten  years' 
labour,  take  it  how  you  wilL 


Pyrmont,  Auffutt  15,  1874. 
My  concert  came  off  yesterday  evening,  and  Deppe 
says  it  was  a  complete  success.  I  did  not  play  any 
solos,  after  all,  though  I  had  prepared  some  beautiful 
ones,  for  Deppe  said  the  programme  would  be  too 
long,  and  he  was  not  quite  sure  of  my  courage, 
"j You'd  be  frightened,  if  you  were  a  ITerr  Gottr  said 
he ;  but,  contrary  to  my  usual  habit,  I  wasn't  fright- 
ened in  the  least,  and  I  think  I  did  as  well  as  such  a 
shaky,  trembly  concern  as  I,  could  have  expected,  par- 


328  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

ticularly  as  my  hands  are  two  little  fiends  who  wonH 
play  if  they  don't  feel  like  it,  do  what  I  will  to  "make 
them  ! — My  programme  was  ^  la  Joachim  ( ! ) — only 
three  pieces  of  Chamber  Music : — 

1.  Quintette,  Op.  87,  E  major,        -  .     Hummel. 

2.  Quartette,  G  major,         ....         Haydn. 

3.  Sonata  for  piano  and  violin, )  -o    *. 

Op.  18,  E  flat  1    •       -       -    B^^tboTen. 

Deppe  arranged  the  whole  thing  most  practically. 
We  had  a  large  salle  in  the  Hotel  Bremen  which  was 
admirably  proportioned,  and  a  new  grand  piano  from 
Berlin.  Deppe  had  only  so  many  chairs  placed  as  he 
had  given  out  invitations,  and  the  consequence  was 
that  every  chair  was  filled,  and  there  were  no  rows  of 
empty  seats.  My  "public"  was  very  musical  and 
critical,  and  there  were  so  many  good  judges  there 
that  I  wonder  I  wasn't  nervous ;  but  a  sort  of  inspi- 
ration came  to  me  at  the  moment. 

The  musicians  who  accompanied  me  were  exceed- 
ingly good  ones  for  such  a  place  as  Pyrmont,  and  my 
strictly  classic  selections  were  received  with  great 
favour  by  the  audience  !  That  quintette  of  Hummel's 
is  a  most  charming  composition — so  flowing  and  ele- 
gant— and  one  can  display  a  good  deal  of  virtuosity  in 
the  last  part  of  it.  I  played  first  and  last,  and  the 
quartette  in  between  was  performed  by  the  stringed 
instruments  alone.  After  I  had  finished  the  quin- 
tette, Deppe,  who  was  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  hall, 
sent  me  word  that  I  was  "  doing  famously,  and  that 
he  was  delighted,"  and  this  encouraged  me  so  that  my 


THE  GOAL  AT  LAST.  329 

sonata  went  beautifully,  too.  When  it  was  over,  ever 
so  many  people  came  up  and  congratulated  me,  and 
FrSulein  Timm,  Deppe's  head  teacher  in  Hamburg, 
even  complimented  me  on  my  "  extraordinary  facility 
of  execution."  I  couldn't  help  laughing  at  that,  with 
my  stubborn  hand  which  never  will  do  anything,  and 
which  only  the  most  intense  study  has  schooled — but 
in  truth  I  was  quite  surprised  myself  at  the  plausible 
way  in  which  it  went  over  all  difficulties !  Quite  a 
number  of  Deppe's  scholars  were  present,  all  of  them 
critics  and  several  of  them  beautiful  pianists.  Two 
nice  American  girls,  sisters,  from  the  West,  came  on 
from  Berlin  on  purpose  for  my  concert.  They  helped 
me  dress,  and  presented  me  with  an  exquisite  bouquet. 
One  of  them  is  taking  lessons  of  Deppe,  and  the  other 
has  a  great  talent  for  drawing,  and  has  been  two 
years  studying  in  Berlin.  She  says  she  has  only  made 
a  "beginning"  now,  and  that  she  wishes  to  study 
"indefinitely"  yet. — So  it  is  in  Art!  I  think  her 
heads  are  excellent  already. 

After  the  concert  was  over,  Deppe  gave  me  a  little 
champagne  supper,  together  with  Frauleins  Timm, 
Steiniger,  and  these  two  young  ladies.  When  he 
poured  out  the  wine  he  said  he  was  going  to  propose 
a  toast  to  two  ladies;  one  of  them,  of  course,  was 
myself,  "and  the  other,"  said  he,  "is  in  America, 
namely,  the  friend  of  Fraulein  Fay,  whom  I  judge  to 
be  a  woman  of  genius,  so  truly  and  rightly  does  she 
feel  about  art  (I've  translated  H's  letters  to  him), 
and  so  nobly  has  she  sympathized  with  and  stood  by 
Fraulein  Fay. — To  Mrs.  A.,  whose  acquaintance  I  long 


330  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

to  make  ! " — You  may  be  sure  I  drank  to  that  toast 
with  enthusiasm.  Ah,  it  was  a  pleasant  evening, 
after  so  many  years  of  fruitless  toil!  The  fat 
and  jolly  old  landlord  came  himself  to  put  me 
into  the  carriage  and  to  say  that  everybody  in  the 
audience  had  expressed  their  pleasure  and  gratifica- 
tion at  my  performance.  I  rather  regret  now  that  I 
did  not  play  my  solos,  but  perhaps  it  is  just  as  well  to 
leave  them  until  another  time.  I  have  "  sprung  over 
one  little  mound  " — to  use  Deppe's  simile — and  got  an 
idea  of  the  impetus  that  will  be  necessary  to  "  carry 
me  over  the  mountain." 


Pykmont,  September  4, 1874. 

After  the  unwonted  exaltation  of  the  success  of 
my  little  concert,  I  have  been  suffering  a  cor- 
responding reaction,  partly  because  FrSulein  Timm, 
Deppe's  Hamburg  assistant,  with  whom  I  am  now 
studying,  began  her  instructions,  as  teachers  always 
do,  by  chucking  me  into  a  deeper  slough  of  despond 
than  usual.  Consequently,  I  haven't  been  very  bright, 
though  I  am  gradually  coming  up  to  the  surface 
again,  for  Fm  pretty  hard  to  drown ! 

FrSulein  Timm  belongs  to  the  single  sisterhood, 
but  is  one  of  the  fresh  and  placid  kind,  and  as  neat  as 
wax.  She's  got  a  great  big  brain  and  a  remarkable  gift 
for  teaching,  for  which  she  has  a  passion.  I  quite 
adore  her  when  she  gets  on  her  spectacles,  for  then 
she  looks  the  personification  of  Sagacity!    She  has 


PRAULEIN  TIMM.  331 

been  associated  with  Deppe  for  years  in  teaching,  and 
"  keeps  all  his  sayings  and  ponders  them  in  her  heart." 
Indeed,  she  knows  his  ideas  almost  better  than  he 
does  himself,  and  carries  on  the  whole  circle  of  pupils 
that  he  left  in  Hamburg  when  he  came  to  Berlin. 
Every  now  and  then  he  runs  down  to  see  how  they 
are  getting  on,  gives  them  all  lessons,  reviews  what 
they  have  done,  and  brings  FrUulein  Timm  all  the 
new  pieces  he  has  discovered  and  fingered.  She  also 
comes  occasionally  to  Berlin  to  see  him,  takes  a  lesson 
every  day,  fills  herself  with  as  many  new  ideas  as  possi- 
ble, and  then  returns  to  her  post.  Together,  they 
form  a  very  strong  pair,  and  I  think  it  a  capital  illus- 
tration of  your  theory  that  men  ought  to  associate 
women  with  them  in  their  work,  and  that  "  men 
should  create,  and  women />erfec^." 

Deppe  makes  FrSulein  Timm  and  FrSulein  Steini- 
ger  his  partners  and  associates  in  his  ideas,  and 
the  consequence  is  they  add  all  their  ingenuity  to 
impart  them  to  others.  This  spares  him  much  of  the 
tedious  technical  work,  and  leaves  him  free  for  the 
higher  spheres  of  art,  as  they  take  the  beginners  and 
prepare  them  for  him.  ffe  has  made  them  magnifi- 
cent teachers,  and  they  employ  their  gifts  to  further 
him,  I  don't  doubt  that  through  them  his  method 
will  be  perpetuated,  and  even  if  he  should  die  it  would 
not  be  lost  to  the  world.  On  the  otlier  hand,  he 
has  given  them  something  to  live  for. — Curious  that 
the  practicalness  of  this  association  with  women 
doesn't  strike  the  masculine  mind  oftener ! 

So  I  am  going  down  to  Hamburg  to  study  for  a 


832  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

time  with  this  FrSulein  Timm,  as  I  think  she  will 
develop  my  hand  quicker  than  Deppe,  even.  Deppe 
has  always  urged  me  to  it,  but  I  never  would  do  it, 
as  I  did  not  know  her  personally,  and  did  not  wish  to 
leave  him.  Now  that  I  have  tried  her,  however,  I  find 
he  was  right,  as  he  always  is !  At  present  she  is 
throwing  her  whole  weight  upon  my  wrist,  which  I 
hope  will  get  limber  under  it !  She  has  an  obstinacy 
and  a  perseverance  in  sticking  at  you  that  drive 
you  almost  wild,  but  make  you  learn  "lots"  in 
the  end.  I  think  my  grand  trouble  all  these  years  has 
been  a  stiff  wrist  and  a  heavy  arm.  I  have  borne 
down  too  heavily  on  wrist  and  arm,  whereas  the  whole 
weight  and  power  must  be  just  in  the  tips  of  the 
fingers,  and  the  wrist  and  arm  must  be  quite  light 
and  free,  the  hand  turning  upon  the  wrist  as  if  it 
were  a  pivot. 

Pyrmont  is  an  exquisite  little  place,  and  I  regret  to 
leave  it.  At  first  I  almost  perished  with  loneliness, 
but  now  that  I  have  a  few  acquaintances  here  I  am 
enjoying  it.  It  is  a  fashionable  watering  place,  but 
chiefly  visited  by  ladies.  There  are  about  a  hundred 
women  to  one  man !  The  first  week  I  was  here  I 
lived  at  a  Herr  S.'s,  but  finding  it  too  expensive  I 
looked  up  another  lodging  and  am  now  living  with  a 
jolly  old  maid.  I  like  living  with  old  maids.  I  think 
they  are  much  neater  than  married  women,  and  they 
make  you  more  comfortable.  As  the  season  is  now 
over,  this  one's  house  is  quite  empty,  and  it  is  ex- 
quisitely kept.  I  took  two  rooms  in  the  third  story, 
small  but  very  cozy,  and  with  a  lovely  view  of  the 
hills. 


AN  ILLUMINATED  FOUNTAIN.  333 

We  have  just  had  the  loveliest  illumination  I  evei 
saw.  It  was  one  Sunday  evening — "Golden  Sunday" 
they  call  it  here,  though  why  they  should  call  it  so,  I 
know  not.  I  accepted  the  information,  however,  with- 
out inquiry  into  first  causes,  and  went  out  in  the  even- 
ing to  promenade  in  the  Allee  with  the  rest.  The 
AUee  is  not  all  on  a  level,  but  descends  gradually 
from  the  springs  to  a  fountain  which  is  at  the  op- 
posite end.  Rows  and  rows  of  Japanese  lanterns 
were  festooned  across  the  trees.  As  you  walked  down 
the  path,  you  saw  the  festoons  one  below  the  other. 
The  fountain  was  illuminated  with  gas  jets  behind 
the  water.  You  could  not  see  the  water  till  you  got 
close  up,  and  at  a  distance  only  the  rows  of  gas  jets  were 
apparent.  As  you  neared  it,  however,  the  watery  veil 
seemed  flung  over  them,  like  the  foamy  tulle  over 
a  bride.  It  was  very  fascinating  to  look  at,  and  I 
kept  receding  a  few  paces  and  then  returning.  As  I 
receded,  the  watery  veil  would  disappear,  and  as 
I  approached  it  ^;^ould  again  take  form.  It  reminded 
me  of  some  people's  characters,  of  which  you  see  the 
bright  points  from  the  first,  and  think  you  know  them 
so  well,  but  when  you  draw  closer,  even  in  the  mo- 
ments of  greatest  intimacy,  you  always  feel  a  veil 
between  you  and  them — a  thin,  impalpable  something 
which  you  cannot  annihilate,  even  though  you  may 
see  through  it. 

We  walked  up  and  down  the  Allee  a  long  time  list- 
ening to  the  orchestra,  which  was  playing.  The 
magnificent  great  trees  looked  more  beautiful  than 
ever,  with  their  lower  boughs  lit  up  by  the  lanterns, 


334  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

and  their  upper  ones  disappearing  mysteriously  into 
shadow.  At  last  the  tapers  in  the  lanterns  burned  out 
one  after  another,  the  avenue  was  wrapped  in  gloom, 
and  we  finished  this  poetic  evening  in  the  nsual 
prosaic  manner  by  returning  home  and  going  Ur  bed  I 


CHAPTER  XXVIII, 


Masic  in  Hamburg.     Studying  Chamber  Music.     Absence 

of  Religion  in  Germany.     South  Americans. 

Deppe  once  more.     A  Concert 

D6but.    Postscript. 

Hamburg,  February  1, 1875. 

Hamburg  is  a  lovely  city,  though  I  am  having  such  a 
dreadfully  dreary  and  stupid  time  here — partly  because 
my  boarding-place  is  so  intensely  disagreeable,  and 
partly  because  I  made  up  my  mind  when  I  came  to 
make  no  acquaintances  and  to  do  nothing  but  study. 
I  have  stuck  to  my  resolution,  though  I'm  not  sure  it 
is  not  a  mistake,  for  there  is  a  most  elegant  and  lux- 
urious society  in  this  ancestral  town  of  ours.* 

Life  is  solid  and  material  here,  however,  and  music  is 
at  a  low  ebb.  The  Philharmonic  concerts  are  wretched, 
and  nobody  goes  to  even  the  few  piano  concerts  there 
are.  That  little  Laura  Kahrer,  now  Frau  Eappoldi,  that 
I  heard  in  Weimar  at  Liszt's,  has  been  wanting  to  come 
here  with  her  husband,  who  is  an  eminent  violinist,  but 
she  has  not  dared  to  do  it,  because  all  the  musicians 
tell  her  she  would  not  make  her  expenses.  She  played 
at  the  Philharmonic,  too,  but  since  then  they  won't 
have   any  more  piano  playing  at  the  Philharmonic. 

♦The  writer's  grandmother  was  the  daughter  of  a  leading  Hamburg  mer. 
fihant  who  fled  with  his  family  to  America  when  Napoleon  entered  it. 

(335) 


336  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

Nobody  cares  for  it,  unless  Bulow  or  Rubinstein  or 
Clara  Schumann  are  the  performers.  I  thought  Frau 
Rappoldi  played  magnificently,  but  I  was  the  only  per- 
son who  did  think  so.  She  made  a  dead  failure  here. 
Everybody  was  down  on  her.  As  to  the  criticism,  it  was 
about  like  this :  "  Frau  Rappoldi  played  quite  pret- 
tily and  in  a  lady-like  manner,  but  she  had  no  tone, 
etc."  Poor  thing!  The  next  day  when  Schubert 
went  to  see  her  she  wept  bitterly,  and  well  she  might. 
Schubert  is  one  of  the  directors  of  the  Philharmonic, 
and  it  was  through  him  she  got  the  chance  of  playing. 
He,  too,  felt  awfully  cut  up  at  her  want  of  success. 
"  That  is  what  one  gets,"  said  he  to  me,  "  by  recom- 
mending people.  If  they  don't  succeed,  you  get  all 
the  blame  for  it."  He  felt  he  had  burnt  his  fingers ! 
I  think  the  whole  secret  of  Frau  Rappoldi's  want  of 
success  was  that  she  did  not  look  pretty.  She  was  so 
dowdily  dressed,  and  her  hair  looked  like  a  Feejee 
Islander's.  People  laughed  at  her  before  she  began. 
Too  true  ! — that  "dress  makes  the  woman."* 

Deppe's  darling  Fannie  Warburg'gave  a  concert  here 
last  month,  and  she,  also,  got  a  pretty  poor  criticism, 
and  for  the  same  reason,viz. :  people  haven't  the  musical 
sense  to  appreciate  her — at  least  in  my  opinion.  The 
action  of  her  hands  on  the  piano  is  grace  itself,  and 
the  elasticity  of  her  wrist  is  wonderful.  Her  touch 
completely  realizes  Deppe's  ideal  of  "  letting  the  notes 
fall  from  the  finger-tips  like  drops  of  water,"  and  she- 
executes  better  with  the  left  hand,  if  that  be  possible, 
than  with  the  right !     At  any  rate,  there  is  no  differ- 

♦Fran  Rappoldi  is  now  a  celebrity. 


THE  DEPPE  ''  SCHOOL."  337 

ence.  It  is  the  most  heavenly  enjoyment  to  hear  her, 
and  you  feel  as  if  you  would  like  to  have  her  go  on 
forever.  And  yet,  I  don't  believe  she  will  make  a  great 
career.  She  has  not  fire  enough  to  make  the  public  ap- 
preciate the  immensity  of  her  performance.  No  rush — 
no  abandon!  She  has  no  presence  either,  but  is  a 
timid,  meek,  childlike  little  maiden — docility  itself,  but 
a  made  player,  as  it  were,  not  a  spontaneous  one.  Such 
is  life !  To  me,  her  playing  is  the  purest  music — "die 
reine  MusW^ — and  the  bigger  the  hall  the  more  that 
tone  of  hers  rolls  out  and  fills  it  I 


Hamburg,  Marth  1, 1875. 
I  wish  I  could  write  up  Deppe's  system  for  publica- 
tion, but  it  is  a  very  difficult  thing  to  give  any  ade- 
quate idea  of.  Fraulein  Timm  tells  me  it  is  only 
comparatively  recently  that  he  has  perfected  it  him- 
self to  its  present  point  (though  he  has  long  had  the 
conception  of  it),  and  that  accounts  for  its  not  being 
known.  He  was  completely  buried  in  Hamburg, 
where  there  is  no  scope  for  art.  I  believe  his  ambition 
is  to  found  a  School  of  this  exquisitely  pure  and  per- 
fect and  almost  idealized  piano-playing,  which  may 
serve  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  warmer  and  more  sen- 
suous prevailing  one — sculpture  as  contrasted  with 
painting! 

I  have  been'chiefly  studying  Kammer-Musik  (Cham- 
ber Music)  this  winter — that  is,  trios,  quartettes,  eta 
Fraulein  Timm  is  giving  me  such  a  training  as  I  never 
had  before.     She  has  the  most  astonishing  talent  for 


838  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

teaching,  and  has  reduced  it  to  a  science.  I  don't  play 
anything  up  to  tempo  under  her — always  slow,  slow, 
slow.  She  really  dissects  every  tone,  and  shows  me 
when  and  why  it  doesn't  sound  well.  My  whole  atten- 
tion is  now  bent  upon  tone.  Ah,  M.,  thafs  the  thing 
in  playing ! — To  bring  out  the  soul  there  is  in  the  key 
simply  by  touching  it,  as  the  great  masters  do. — It  is 
the  pianist's  highest  art,  though  amid  the  dazzle  of 
piano  pyrotechnics  the  public  often  forget  it. 

I  am  just  finishing  Beethoven's  third  Trio,  Op.  1. 
The  last  movement  is  the  loveliest  thing !  It  makes 
me  think  of  a  wood  in  spring  filled  with  birds.  One 
minute  you  hear  a  lot  of  gossiping  little  sparrows 
twittering  and  chippering,  and  then  comes  some  rare 
wild  bird  with  a  sort  of  cadence,  and  then  come  others 
and  whistle  and  call.  It  is  bewitching,  and  the  most 
perfect  imitation  of  nature  imaginable ;  gay — so  gay ! 
as  only  Beethoven  can  be  when  he  begins  to  play. 
Everything  is  on  the  wing.  It  is,  of  course,  exceedingly 
difiicult,  because,  like  all  this  pure,  classic  music,  to 
make  any  effect  it  has  to  be  executed  with  the  utmost 
perfection.  I  am  so  infatuated  with  it  that  when  I 
get  through  practicing  it,  I  feel  as  if  I  were  tipsy ! 

These  Beethoven  trios  are  a  perfect  mine  in  them- 
selves. Each  one  seems  to  be  entirely  different  from 
all  the  rest.  There  are  twelve  in  all,'and  Deppe  wants 
me  to  learn  them  all.  Think  what  a  piece  of  work  I 
This  enormous  amount  of  literature  that  you  must 
have  to  form  a  repertoire — the  trios,  quartettes,  quin- 
tettes, concertos,  etc.,  it  is  that  makes  it  so  long  before 
one  is  a  finished  artist.    And  then  you  must  consider 


A   DOMESTIC   TYRANT.  339 

the  hours  and  hours  that  go  to  waste  on  studies,  just 
to  get  your  hand  into  a  condition  to  play  these  master- 
pieces. Oh,  the  arduousness  of  it  is  incalculable  !  I 
often  ask  myself,  "What  demon  has  tempted  me  here  ?'' 
as  I  sit  and  drudge  at  the  piano.  I  play  all  day,  take 
a  walk  with  L.  in  the  afternoon,  and  at  night  tumble 
into  bed  and  sleep  like  a  log — that  is,  when  my  hardest 
of  beds  and  shivering  room  will  let  me  sleep.  That  is 
my  life,  day  after  day.  I  only  see  the  people  of  the 
house  at  meals.  \ 

I  am  the  only  lady  in  this  family.  All  the  other 
boarders  are  very  young  men,  almost  boys,  who  are 
here  to  learn  German  or  commerce.  There  are  three 
South  Americans,  one  Portugese,  one  Brazilian,  one 
Eussian  and  one  Frenchman.  I  hear  Spanish  and 
French  all  the  while,  but  no  English,  and  with  the 
German  it  is  very  confusing. — I  feel  very  sorry  for  all 
these  young  fellows,  their  lives  are  so  bare  and  disa- 
greeable, and  so  wholly  devoid  of  any  influence  that  can 
make  them  better  or  happier.  As  for  our  landlady,  it 
would  take  a  Balzac  to  do  justice  to  such  a  combination. 
She  is  a  good  housekeeper.  The  cooking  is  excellent, 
and  my  room  (when  warm)  is  pleasant.  Indeed,  the 
Hamburg  standard  of  housekeeping  is  much  higher 
than  in  Berlin.  Things  are  much  daintier.  But  her 
power  of  making  you  physically  and  mentally  uncom- 
fortable in  other  ways  is  unsurpassed.  Were  it  not 
that  my  stay  is  indefinite,  and  that  I  have  already 
moved  once,  I  would  not  remain  here.  As  it  is,  I  pre- 
fer putting  up  with  it  to  the  trouble  and  expense  of 
changing ;  beside  which,  I  have  found  that  when  once 


340  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

you  have  left  your  own  home-circle,  you  have  to  bear, 
as  a  rule,  with  at  least  one  intensely  disagreeable  per- 
son in  every  house. 

My  opinion  of  human  nature  has  not  risen  since  I 
came  abroad,  and  I  think  that  this  winter  has  quite 
cured  me  of  my  natural  tendency  to  skepticism. — I 
now  realize  too  well  what  people's  characters,  both  men 
and  women,  may  become  without  religion  either  in 
themselves  or  in  those  about  them.  I  suppose  there 
is  religion  in  Germany,  but  /  have  seen  very  little  of 
it,  either  in  Protestants  or  Catholics,  and  the  results 
I  consider  simply  dreadful !  You  see,  there  is  no  ade- 
quate motive  to  check  the  indulgence  of  any  impulse 
— I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  jealousy  is  the 
national  vice  of  the  Germans.  Everybody  is  jealous 
of  everybody  else,  no  matter  how  absurdly  or  cause- 
lessly. Old  women  are  jealous  of  young  ones,  and 
even  sisters  in  the  same  family  are  jealous  of  each 
other  to  a  degree  that  I  couldn't  have  believed,  had  I 
not  seen  it. 


Hamburg,  Baiter  Sunday,  1875. 
With  regard  to  playing  in  concert,  I  find  myself 
doubting  whether  on  general  principles  it  is  best  to 
get  one's  whole  musical  trainins^  under  one  master 
only,  as  Fannie  Warburg,  for  instance,  has  done ;  for 
my  experience  teaches  me  that  though  nearly  all 
masters  can  give  you  something,  none  can  give  you 
everything.  If,  with  my  present  light,  I  could 
begin  my  study  over  again,  I  should  first  stay  three 


"CONCERT  PLAYING  IS  ROUTINE."         341 

years  with  Deppe,  in  order  to  endow  the  spirit  of 
music  that  I  hope  is  within  me,  with  the  outward  form 
and  perfection  of  an  artist.  Next,  I  should  study  a  year 
with  Kullak,  to  give  my  playing  a  brilliant  concert  dress, 
and  finally,  I  would  spend  two  seasons  with  Liszt,  in 
order  to  add  the  last  ineffable  graces — (for  never, 
never  should  an  artist  complete  a  musical  course 
without  going  to  Liszt,  while  he  is  on  this  earth !) 
— ^The  trouble  is,  however,  that  one  master  always  feels 
hurt  if  you  leave  him  for  another !  No  one  can  bear 
the  imputation  that  he  can^C  "  give  you  eveiyfching." 
But  in  truth  I  am  getting  very  impatient  to  be 
at  home  where  I  can  study  by  myself,  and  take 
as  much  time  as  I  think  necessary  to  work  up  my 
pieces.  Deppe  and  Fraulein  Timm  are  like  Kullak  in 
one  thing.  They  never  will  give  me  time  enough,  but 
hurry  me  on  so  from  one  thing  to  another,  that  it  is 
impossible  for  me  to  prepare  a  programme.  So  I 
have  given  up  my  plan  of  a  concert  in  Berlin  this 
spring.  They  have  one  set  of  ideas  and  I  another, 
and  I  see  I  shall  never  be  able  to  play  in  public  until 
I  abandon  masters  and  start  out  on  my  own  course. 
Two  people  never  think  exactly  alike.  Masters  can 
put  you  on  the  road,  but  they  can't  make  you  go. 
You  must  do  that  for  yourself.  As  Dr.  V.  says, 
"  If  you  want  to  do  a  thing  you  have  got  to  keep  doing 
it.  You  mustn't  stop — certainly  not !"  Concert-play- 
ing, like  everything  else,  is  routine,  and  has  got  to  be 
learned  by  little  and  little,  and  perhaps,  with  many 
half -failures.  But  if  the  "great  public"  will  only  tol- 
erate one  as  a  pupil  long  enough,  eventually,  one 


342  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY 

must  succeed.  At  any  rate,  it  is  probably  the  best  and 
the  only  "  master  "  for  me  now  ! 

On  Wednesday  I  return  for  awhile  to  Berlin,  to  the 
American  boarding-house,  No.  15  Tauben  Strasse, 
whither  you  can  all  direct  as  formerly.  This  winter  has 
been  rather  a  contrast  to  last.  Then  I  lived  entirely 
among  North  Americans,  whereas  here  I  am  almost 
exclusively  with  South  Americans.  There  are  any  r  um- 
ber of  these  latter  in  Hamburg,  and  you  have  no  idea 
how  fascinating  many  of  them  are — so  handsome  and  so 
bright.  They  all  have  a  talent  for  music  and  dancing. 
Their  music  is  entirely  of  a  light  character,  but  they 
have  rhythm  and  grace  in  a  remarkable  degree. 
When  I  hear  them  play  I  always  think  of  George 
Sands's  description  in  her  novel  ^^Malgre-tout^'  oi 
the  artist  Abel — the  hero  of  the  book,  and  a  great 
violinist.  She  says,  "  II  racla  un  air  sur  son  violon 
avec  entrain" — That  is  just  what  these  South  Ameri- 
cans do — "  racier!"  They  all  play  the  piano  just  as 
with  us  the  negro  plays  the  fiddle,  without  instruction, 
apparently,  and  simply  because  "it  is  their  nature  to." 
I  saw  at  once  where  Gottschalk  got  his  "  Banjo"  and 
"  Bananier,"  and  the  peculiar  style  of  his  compositions 
generally,  and  since  I've  met  so  many  South  Ameri- 
cans I  can  readily  imagine  why  he  spent  so  much  of 
his  time  in  South  America.  I  long  to  go  there  myself. 
I  think  it  must  be  a  fascinating  place  for  an  artist. 

One  of  the  South  Americans  here  at  the  house  is  a 
boy  of  fifteen,  named  Juan  di  Livramento,  or,  I  should 
say,  Juan  Moreiro  Aranjo  di  Livramento  !  (They  all 
have  about  a  dozen  names  in  the  grandiloquent  style 


A  SPANISH  AMERICAN'.  343 

of  the  Spaniards.)  This  boy  is  a  curious  youngster.  He 
is  tall  and  lithe,  with  the  most  magnificent  dark  eyes 
I  ever  saw  or  conceived,  thick  silky  black  hair,  all  in 
a  tumble  about  his  head,  a  delicate  and  very  expressive 
face,  and  a  clear  olive  complexion — a  perfect  type  of 
a  Spaniard.  He  seems  born  to  dance  the  Bolero,  like 
Belinda,  in  Mrs.  Edwards's  novel.  It  is  the  prettiest 
thing  to  see  him  do  it — and  in  fact  he  does  it  on 
all  occasions  without  any  reference  to  propriety, 
being  an  utterly  lawless  individual.  He  frequently 
gets  up  from  the  dinner-table,  throws  his  napkin  over 
his  shoulders,  snaps  his  thumbs,  and  begins  a  dance  in 
the  corner  of  the  room,  between  the  courses.  It  has 
got  to  be  such  an  every-day  thing  that  nobody  looks 
surprised  or  pays  any  attention  to  him.  We  dine  late, 
and  as  there  are  a  good  many  boarders,  it  takes  some 
time  always  to  change  the  plates.  Juan,  who  is  like 
so  much  mercury,  never  can  sit  still  during  these 
intervals.  When  asked  to  ring  the  bell  for  the  ser- 
vant, he  will  spring  up  like  a  shot,  give  it  a  violent 
pull,  and  then  take  advantage  of  being  up  to  dance  in 
the  corner,  or  at  least  to  cut  a  few  antics,  fling  his 
leg  over  the  back  of  his  chair,  and  come  down  astride 
of  it.     This  is  his  usual  mode  of  resuming  his  seat. 

On  the  days  when  he  doesn't  dance,  he  keeps  up  a 
continual  talking.  He  will  rattle  on  in  Spanish  till 
Herr  S.  gets  desperate,  and  tries  to  reduce  him  to 
order.  It  is  a  rule  that  German  must  be  spoken  at 
table,  but  Juan  thinks  it  sufficient  if  he  applies  the  rule 
only  so  far  as  not  to  speak  Spanish,  his  native  lan- 
guage.   He  goes  to  school  where,  of  course,  he  learns 


344  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

English  and  French,  and  he  is  always  trying  to  get  oil 
some  remarks  in  these  languages.  He  speaks  all 
wrong,  but  that  does  not  cause  him  the  least  embar- 
rassment.— On  Sundays  especially  is  Juan  perfectly 
irrepressible,  for  then  Frau  S.  goes  to  dine  and 
spend  the  evening  with  her  parents,  and  Herr  S.  is 
left  to  maintain  order.  He  is  an  indulgent  old  man, 
and  very  fond  of  Juan,  so  that  the  latter  has  not  the 
least  fear  of  him,  and  I  nearly  die  trying  to  keep  my 
face  straight  when  they  have  one  of  their  scenes. 

"  You  shall  NOT  speak  Spanish  at  the  table,"  said 
poor  old  S.  the  other  day,  in  a  rage.  Spanish  is 
jargon  to  him,  and  Juan  had  been  talking  it  for  some 
time  at  the  top  of  his  voice  across  Herr  S.,  to  his 
friend  Candido,  who  sat  opposite.  Juan  knew  very 
well  that  that  meant  he  must  speak  German,  but 
instead  of  that  he  began  in  foreign  languages,  and 
said  to  Herr  S.,  in  English,  "Do  you  spoke  Rus- 
sish  (Do  you  speak  Russian)  ?" 

Herr  S.,  to  whom  English  is  as  unintelligible  as 
Spanish,  naturally  making  no  reply  to  this  brilliant 
remark,  Juan  continued — "^Spring  is  Coming/  Poem 
by  James  K.  Blake,"  and  then  he  began  to  recite  with 
much  gesticulation — 

"Spring  is  coming,  spring  is  coming, 
Birds  are  singing,  insects  humming ; 
Flowers  are  peeping  from  their  sleeping, 
Streams  escape  from  winter's  keeping,  etc." 

I  won't  pretend  to  say  what  the  rest  of  it  was,  as  his 
pronunciation  was  utterly  unintelligible.  Herr  S. 
rolled  up  his  eyes  and  made  no  further  protest,  for  he 


SPANISH  EYES.  345 


found  he  only  got  "  out  of  the  frying-pan  into  the  fire/' 
Juan  having  a  historical  anecdote  called  "  The  Dead 
Watch,"  which  he  occasionally  substitutes  for  the 
poem. 

After  dinner  he  generally  has  an  affectionate  turn, 
and  goes  round  the  table  shaking  hands  with  those 
still  seated,  or  putting  his  arm  around  their  necks,  and 
then  he  seems  like  some  gentle  wild  animal  which 
comes  and  rubs  its  head  up  against  you,  and  it  is 
impossible  to  help  loving  him.  As  soon,  however,  as 
T.  or  anybody  thrums  a  waltz  on  the  piano,  he 
instantly  throws  himself  into  the  attitude  to  dance. 
He  is  so  very  light  on  his  feet  that  you  don't  hear 
him,  and  often  I  am  surprised  on  looking  up,  without 
thinking,  to  see  Juan  poised  on  one  toe  like  a  ballet 
dancer,  and  his  great  eyes  shining  soft  on  me  like  two 
suns.  It  is  most  peculiar.  There  are  no  eyes  like  the 
Spanish  eyes.  Not  only  have  they  so  much  fire,  but 
when  their  owners  are  in  a  sentimental  mood,  they  can 
throw  a  languor  and  a  sort  of  droop  into  them  that  is 
irresistible.  This  is  the  way  Juan  does,  aad  though  he 
is  too  young  to  be  sentimental,  he  looks  as  if  he  were. 
One  minute  he  is  all  ablaze,  and  the  next  perfectly 
melting. — The  other  day  Frau  S.  took  him  to  task 
for  his  extreme  animation. — "  Junge,^^  (German  for 
"Boy"),"you  mustn't  scream  so  all  over  the  house.  You 
really  are  a  nuisance."  Juan  was  offended  at  this,  and 
began  to  defend  himself.  "Why  do  you  scold  me,"  he 
said.  "  I'm  always  in  good  humour.  I  never  sulk  or 
find  fault  with  anything.  Ja,  irhmer  vergnugt  (Yes, 
always  in  a  good  humour),  and  ready  to  amuse  every. 


346  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

body,  and  I  never  get  angry."  Frau  S.  admitted 
that  was  true,  but  at  the  same  time  suggested  it  would 
be  well  for  him  to  remember  we  were  not  all  deaf. 
Juan  withdrew  in  dudgeon. — Well,  I  suppose  you  are 
tired  of  hearing  about  him,  but  these  South  Americans 
are  a  tjipe  by  themselves,  and  I  felt  as  if  I  must  touch 
off  one  of  them  for  the  benefit  of  the  family. 


Berlin,  April  18, 1S75. 
Since  my  return  I  have  been  enjoying  extremely 
what  I  suppose  I  must  consider  my  last  lessons  with 
Deppe.  After  studying  with  FrSulein  Timm  I  know 
much  better  what  he  is  driving  at.  The  technique 
seems  to  be  unfolding  to  me  like  a  ribbon.  So  all  her 
maulings  were  to  some  purpose !  Yesterday  I  played 
him  a  sonata  of  Beethoven's  and  he  said,  "  God  grant 
that  you  may  still  be  left  to  me  some  time  longer ! 
Now  you  are  really  beginning  to  be  my  scholar." — And 
indeed,  having  studied  his  technique  so  long  with  FrSu- 
leins  Timm  and  Steiniger,  it  does  seem  hard  that  I 
have  to  leave  him !  How  I  wish  I  could  stay  on  in- 
definitely and  give  myself  up  to  his  purely  musical  side 
and  get  the  benefit  of  all  his  deep  and  beautiful  ideas. 
There  never  was  such  a  teacher !  If  I  could  only  come 
up  to  his  standard  I  should  be  perfectly  happy.  Lucky 
girl — that  Steiniger !  Think  of  it !  She  has  nine  con- 
certos that  she  could  get  up  for  concert  any  minute. 
That's  the  crushing  kind  of  repertoire  he  gives  his  pu- 
pils— so  exhaustive  and  complete  in  every  depart- 
ment.    He  knows  the  whole  piano  literature,  and  is 


A  "  FRIEND  IN  NEED."  347 

continually  fishing  up  some  new  or  old  pearl  or  other 
to  surprise  one  with. 

I  find  Deppe  is  getting  to  be  much  more  recognized 
in  Berlin  this  year  than  he  was  before.  He  has  just 
been  directing  a  new  opera  here  which  has  created 
quite  a  sensation,  and  he  is  continually  engaged  in 
some  great  work.  Fortunate  that  I  found  him  out 
when  I  did  !  for  he  takes  fewer  pupils  than  ever.  He 
says  he  can't  teach  people  who  are  not  sympathetic  to 
him.  The  other  day  he  presented  a  beautiful  overture 
of  his  own  composition  to  the  Duke  of  Mecklenburg, 
who  accepted  it  in  person  and  sent  Deppe  an  exquisite 
pin  in  token  of  recognition.  When  simple  little  Deppe 
gets  that  stuck  in  his  scarf,  he  will  be  a  terrific  swell ! 

Now  for  a  piece  of  news !  I  was  paying  my  French 
teacher.  Mademoiselle  D.,  a  call  one  evening  last  week, 
and  I  played  for  her  and  for  a  friend  of  hers  who  is 
very  musical,  and  who  gives  lessons  herself.  She  at 
once  said  very  decidedly  that  I  "  ought  to  be  heard  in 
concert."  Her  brother  is  the  director  of  the  Philhar- 
monic Society  in  a  place  called  Frankfurt-an-der- 
Oder — a  little  city  not  far  from  here.  What  should 
she  do  but  write  to  her  brother  about  me,  and  what 
should  he  do  but  immediately  write  up  for  me  to  come 
down  and  play  in  a  Philharmonic  concert  there  the  first 
week  in  May.  As  I  have  been  so  anxious  to  play  in  a 
concert  before  leaving  Germany,  and  yet  have  seen  no 
way  to  do  it,  I  am  going,  of  course,  and  am  most  grate- 
ful to  his  sister  for  thinking  of  it.  But  it  is  always 
the  Unexpected  that  helps  you  out ! 


348  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERJUANY. 


Berlin,  May  13,  1875. 

Well,  dear,  my  little  debut  was  a  decided  suc- 
cess, and  I  had  one  encore,  beside  being  heartily 
applauded  after  every  piece.  1  went  on  to  Frankfurt 
on  Monday  morning,  and  when  I  got  there  Herr  Oert- 
ling,  the  Philharmonic  Director,  was  at  the  station  to 
meet  me  with  a  droschkie.  We  drove  to  the  Deutches 
Haus,  an  excellent  hotel,  where  I  was  shown  into  a  large 
and  comfortable  room.  Here  I  rested  until  dinner 
time,  and  after  dinner,  about  five  o'clock,  Herr 
Oertling  came  back.  He  took  me  to  the  house  of 
a  musical  friend  of  his  who  was  to  lend  me  his  grand 
piano,  and  there  we  tried  our  sonata.  As  soon  as 
Oertling  touched  his  violin  I  saw  that  he  was  a  supe- 
rior artist,  and  that  immediately  inspired  me.  His 
playing  carried  me  right  along,  and  I  think  I  played 
well.  At  all  events,  he  seemed  entirely  satisfied,  and 
said,  "  We  could  have  played  that  sonata  without  re- 
hearsing it.''  After  we  finished  the  sonata,  I  played 
for  about  an  hour,  all  sorts  of  things.  There  were 
quite  a  number  of  people  present  to  judge  of  my 
powers.  Herr  W.,  the  owner  of  the  piano,  was  a 
remarkable  judge  of  music,  and  made  some  excellent 
criticisms  and  suggestions.  We  stayed  there  to  sup- 
per, but  I  went  back  to  the  hotel  early  and  went  to 
bed  about  half -past  nine,  where  I  slept  like  a  log  till 
eight  the  next  morning. 

After  breakfast  Oertling  came  to  take  me  to  try  the 
pianos  of  a  celebrated  manufacturer  of  uprights. 
I  played  there  three  or  four  hours.   The  maker's  name 


THE  WRITER  PLAYS  IN  CONCERT.         349 

was  Gruss,  and  his  pianos  were  the  best  uprights 
I  liad  ever  seen ;  nearly  as  powerful  as  a  grand,  and 
with  a  superb  tone  and  action.  On  the  wall  was 
a  testimonial  from  Henselt,  framed.  It  seems  Hen- 
selt  goes  to  Frankfurt  every  year  to  visit  a  Rus- 
sian lady  there,  who  is  the  grandee  of  the  place 
and  a  great  patroness  of  artists.  In  the  afternoon, 
Oertling  came  for  me  to  go  and  rehearse  in  the 
hall.  Everything  went  beautifully,  and  I  returned  to 
the  hotel  in  good  spirits.  By  the  time  I  was  dressed 
for  the  concert,  which  was  to  begin  at  seven,  Oertling 
appeared  again,  in  evening  costume,  and  presented  me 
with  a  bouquet.  We  drove  to  the  hall  through  a  pour- 
ing rain.  It  was  crowded,  notwithstanding,  for  he 
had  had  the  assurance  to  print  that  the  concert  was 
"  to  be  brilliant  through  the  performance  of  an  Ameri- 
can Virtuosin,  named  Miss  Amy  Fay.  This  young 
lady  has  studied  with  tlie  greatest  masters,  and  has 
had  the  most  perfect  success  everywhere  in  her  con- 
cert tours ! "  Did  you  ever ! — You  can  imagine  how 
I  felt  on  reading  it  and  seeing  that  I  was  expected  to 
perform  as  if  I  had  been  on  the  stage  all  my  life! 
Oertling  had  arranged  the  programme  judiciously. 
Our  sonata  came^rs^,  so  that  I  plunged  right  in  and 
didn't  have  to  wait  and  tremble !  Then  came  two 
pieces  by  the  orchestra;  next,  my  three  solos  in  a 
row,  and  a  symphony  of  Haydn  closed  the  programme. 
The  sonata  went  off  very  smoothly.  In  my  first  solo 
I  occasionally  missed  a  note,  but  my  second  was  with- 
out slip,  and  my  third — Chopin's  Study  in  Sixths — ■ 
was  encored,  though  I  took  the  tempo  too  fast.     How- 


350  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

ever,  the  Fran  Excellency  von  X.  said  she  had  fre- 
quently heard  it  from  Henselt,  but  that  I  played  it 
"just  as  well  as  he  did."  That's  absurd,  of  course, 
though  not  bad  considered  as  a  compliment!  They 
all  said, "  What  a  pity  Henselt  wasn't  here  !"  I  said  to 
myself,  "What  a  blessing  Henselt  wasn't !" — though  I 
would  give  much  to  see  him,  as  he  is  the  greatest  piano 
virtuoso  in  the  world  after  Liszt. 

After  the  concert  Oertling  and  some  of  the  musi- 
cians accompanied  me  to  the  hotel,  where  1  was  obliged 
to  sit  at  table  and  have  my  health  drunk  in  cham- 
pagne till  two  o'clock  in  the  morning !  for  you  know 
when  the  Germans  once  begin  that  sort  of  thing 
there's  no  end  to  it.  They  drank  to  my  health,  and 
then  they  drank  to  my  future  performance  in  the  first 
Philharmonic  next  season,  and  then  they  drank  to  our 
frequent  reunion,  etc.,  etc.  When  they  had  finished 
I  had  to  respond.  So  I  toasted  the  Herr  Director  and 
I  toasted  the  piano-maker,  and  I  toasted  the  orchestra, 
and  what  not.  At  last  I  was  released  and  could  go  to 
my  room.  The  next  morning  I  left  for  Berlin,  which 
I  reached  in  time  for  dinner,  and  as  soon  as  I  appeared 
at  table  the  boarders  saluted  me  with  a  burst  of  ap- 
plause ! — I  found   it   a  very   pleasant  finale. 

I  translate  for  you  the  criticism  from  the  Frank- 
furter Zeitung  und  Allgemeiner  Anzeiger  for  May  11. 
Herr  Oertling  sent  it  to  me  yesterday : 

"  The  Philharmonic  concert  which  took  place  last 
Friday  evening,  must  be  considered  as  an  excellent  rec- 
ommendation of  the  active  members  of  that  associa- 
tion to  the  public.    For  not  only  did  the  playing  of 


A  WORD  OF  WARNING.  351 

the  pianist.  FrSulein  Amy  Fay,  give  great  pleasure  to 
all  those  who  love  and  understand  music,  but  there 
was  also  no  fault  to  be  found  with  the  interpretations 
of  the  orchestra.  *  *  *  'VVith  regard  to  the 
performance  of  Fraulein  Fay,  we  were  equally  charmed 
by  her  clear  and  certain  touch  and  by  her  conception 
of  the  various  solo  pieces  she  played.  The  concert 
opened  with  the  Sonata  in  E  ilat  major  for  violin  and 
piano  by  Beethoven.  The  whole  effect  of  the  work 
was  a  very  sympathetic  and  satisfactory  one,  and 
showed  a  thoughtful  interpretation  on  the  part  of  the 
artist.  The  beauty  of  her  conception  was  especially 
evident  in  the  Raff  "Capriccio,"  and  in  Killer's  "Zur 
Guitarre,"  given  as  an  encore  upon  her  recall  by  the 
audience,  and  we  can  but  congratulate  the  teacher  of 
the  young  lady,  Hen  Ludwig  Deppe,  of  Berlin,  upon 
such  a  scholar." 


[Two  weeks  after  the  concert,  the  relative  to  whom 
most  of  the  foregoing  letters  were  written,  joined  the 
writer  at  Berlin,  and  the  correspondence  came  to  an 
end.  In  the  following  September,  after  an  absence 
of  six  years,  my  sister  returned  home. — My  sister 
hopes  that  no  American  girl  who  reads  this  book  will 
be  influenced  by  it  rashly  to  attempt  what  she  herself 
undertook,  viz. :  to  be  trained  in  Europe  from  an  ama- 
teur into  an  artist.  Its  pages  have  afforded  glimpses, 
only,  of  the  trials  and  difficulties  with  which  a  girl 
may  meet  when  studying  art  alone  in  a  foreign  land, 
but  they  should  not  therefore  be  underrated.    Piano 


352  MUSIC-STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

teaching  has  developed  immensely  in  America  since 
the  date  of  the  first  of  the  foregoing  letters,  and  not 
only  such  celebrities  as  Dr.  William  Mason,  Mr.  Wm. 
H.  Sherwood,  and  Mrs.  Kive  King,  but  various  other 
brilliant  or  exquisite  pianists  in  this  country  are  as  able 
to  train  pupils  for  the  technical  demands  of  the  con- 
cert-room as  any  masters  that  are  to  be  found  abroad. 
American  teachers  best  understand  the  American 
temperament,  and  therefore  are  by  far  the  best 
for  American  pupils  until  they  have  got  beyond  the 
pupil  stage. — Not  manual  skill,  but  musical  insight 
and  conception,  wider  and  deeper  musical  comprehen- 
sion, and  "  concert  style  "  are  what  the  young  artist 
should  now  go  to  seek  in  that  marvellous  and  only 
real  home  of  music — Germany.] — Ed. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

MUSIC  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 

DEC  2  4  1973 

JUL    2  1974 

.    .         quarter 

rrn       3  1Q7fi 

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MAR  2  3  iS' y 

.lUN     8  1R79 

.iUL    '■       '■'-'':' 

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(Q5761S10)476— A-32                   University  of  California 

Berkeley 

mms. 


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